A pre-dawn suicide attack on an artillery garrison that was quickly repulsed by the Army, left three soldiers, including an officer of the Army dead and five others wounded in frontier Kupwara district of north Kashmir on Thursday.
Two of the three attackers, believed to be lashkar-e-Tayyeba (leT) terrorists, were killed in the attack which bore a resemblance to the Uri attack in which 10 soldiers were killed when an Army camp was targeted in September last year. Third terrorist is on the run.
A stone-pelter was killed in protests held by the residents of the area to claim the bodies of the slain terrorists.
The attack was carried out a day after Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti chaired a crucial meeting of the Unified Headquarters to review the worsening law and order and insurgency situation in Kashmir.
Sources said the attack at 4.30 am was sudden, brief and intense that began with a deafening blast followed by heavy firing. A search operation began immediately in the area.
Defence spokesman in Srinagar Colonel Rajesh Kalia confirmed the death of three soldiers, including a Captain. He said five soldiers were airlifted to Base Hospital in Srinagar, where at least one soldier is in a critical condition.
“Terrorists attacked the Army garrison in Panzgam in the wee hours.
Two terrorists were killed. Three soldiers, including an officer were martyred in the gunfight,” Colonel Kalia said.
Briefing mediapersons on the encounter, Colonel Saurab Joshi said that two to three terrorists forced their entry into the camp from a ridge at the rear. “The terrorists were intercepted by the sentries and not allowed to move towards the living area of the camp. They were pushed towards the exit gate and killed there,” Joshi said.
He said the encounter lasted for 35 minutes. “Two terrorists were killed and one of them is on the run. We have launched operation to track him down,” he said the affiliation of the attackers was being ascertained.
The Panzgam artillery camp, spread over a vast area and central to the cluster of Army formations in the region, is located 10 km from the line of Control (loC).
At least three AK-47 assault rifles, nine magazines, 156 rounds of AK-47, one Chinese pistol, one pistol magazine, one Underbarrel Grenade launcher and three grenades, three matrix sheets, two GPS sets, one smart phone and one radio set were recovered from the possession of the suicide attackers.
The slain soldiers have been identified as 26-year-old Captain Ayush Yadav, a resident of Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and Adjutant 312 Medium Regiment, Subedar Bhoop Singh from Rajasthan and Naik BV Ramanna from Visakhapatnam.
later, a mob staged protests in the area chanting pre-freedom slogans and throwing stones at the security forces. They were demanding the bodies of the slain militants to perform their last rites. Sources said the protesters were chased away by the security forces and a civilian Mohammad Yousuf Bhat was killed during the retaliatory action. The civilian killing triggered more protests in the area.
This is the first fidayeen attack in Kashmir in 2017 and the second such fierce assault on an artillery formation in the State since November last. At least two Army officers and five soldiers were killed in a similar attack on an artillery garrison (166 Field Regiment) in Nagrota, Jammu on November 16, 2016
The attack took place hours before Home Minister Rajnath Singh held an inter-ministerial meeting to review the Kashmir situation.
Meanwhile, the police raided the residence of the leader of all-woman group Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Asiya Andrabi in Soura locality of Srinagar outskirts and took her into custody. Andrabi was arrested last year after she telephonically addressed a gathering in lahore organized by now-jailed Jamiat-ul-Dawah leader Hafiz Sayeed. Andrabi is a staunch pro-Pakistan leader and her husband Ashiq Hussain Faktoo, a former chief of Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen outfit, is serving life imprisonment.