Kashmir under attack: 8 Army personnel, 3 policemen killed on eve of PM Narendra Modi’s rally

Srinagar: Eight Army personnel, including a lieutenant colonel, three state policemen and six militants were killed on Friday in one of the deadliest encounters seen in Jammu and Kashmir in the past several years.

The attack comes just days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled visit to the state on December 8 to address election rallies.

A police assistant sub-inspector was injured in the six-hour-long battle that took place in and around an Army base at Mohura, 90 km northwest of Srinagar, and within a 5 km radius of the Line of Control.

Two militants, including an alleged top commander of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba were also killed on Friday in a gunbattle with the police in Srinagar’s Onta Bhavan locality. Two policemen were reportedly injured in the clash.

In yet another incident, two residents were killed and nine others injured in a grenade explosion in the southern town of Tral, that was blamed on separatist militants by the police. A police station in Shopian town, was also targeted by militants with a hand grenade, but no casualties were reported.

Union home minister Rajnath Singh said attacks like the ones at Mohura and Shopian would not be tolerated.

J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah said the attacks, on the eve of the PM’s election rallies in the state, were a “desperate attempt” to disrupt peace and normality. He wrote on Twitter: “Once again shows the desperate levels militants will go to disrupt peace and normalcy.” In an earlier tweet, he had said: “Militants have struck an Army camp in North Kashmir between Baramulla and Uri. Security force casualties are feared. It’s an ongoing encounter.”

“We always extended the hand of friendship to Pakistan, but in reply we got bullets... We will not tolerate such kind of activities,” home minister Rajnath Singh told reporters on the sidelines of a rally in the Thana Mandi area of Rajouri district. He added: “India is giving an effective reply to the terrorists.”

Read: NSA Ajit Doval briefs PM Modi regarding the multiple terror attacks in Kashmir Valley

The pre-dawn “fidayeen” attack and subsequent firefight occurred near the Army’s 31 Field Ordinance Regiment base at Kandarwan, Mohura, a heavily militarised area close to the LoC. Though it is within 5 km of the de facto border, the distance by road between the two is around 13 km. Army and police sources said the fighting stopped in six and a half hours, but Army reinforcements with the local police’s counter-insurgency Special Operations Group and the CRPF had laid siege to a vast area around the Army camp and a massive search operation was on as reports last came in. Two Army helicopters were pressed into service for surveillance of the area, reports said.

Army and police sources said the militants, who divided themselves into two groups, attacked the Army camp at 3.10 am, initially with small arms and then also used under-barrel grenade launchers and grenades. While some militants tried to enter the camp, their accomplices laid an ambush to block the way of Army reinforcements from relocating to the area, but were soon engaged in gunbattles at both places. Police sources, however, said at least three militants had actually entered the camp after killing four soldiers on the road outside. Asked if it was a “fidayeen” attack, an officer of the Army’s 19 Infantry Division said on condition of anonymity: “It looks it was like that.” He added that an Army barracks inside the camp had caught fire during the fighting.

Reports from Uri said the militants involved in the attack on the Army camp also fired at guards of a local police officer. Army sources said its Quick Response Teams immediately surrounded the area and “all the terrorists have been neutralised”. The dead included Lt. Col. Sankalp Kumar of 24 Punjab Regiment, sources said.

Police officials said that the militant group involved in the attack at the Army camp may have recently sneaked into J&K from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service and trade between the two parts of Kashmir are conducted through this point of the LoC in the Valley. Polling in Uri and 15 other areas is due in the third of the five-phased Assembly elections on December 9.

The Srinagar-based 15 (Chinar) Corps of the Army said in a statement Friday afternoon that a group of “heavily armed and well-equipped terrorists” had opened heavy fire with automatic weapons at the Mohura Army camp at around 3 am. “Army troops within the camp retaliated immediately and engaged the terrorists,” it said, adding that troops from the neighbouring camps, who were already on high alert, immediately mobilised their QRTs, rushing to the site and surrounding the area. It also said in the ensuing firefight, all six foreign terrorists were eliminated.

The Army statement said: “During the intense operations, one officer and seven soldiers of the Army, and one ASI and two constables of the J&K Police made the supreme sacrifice. Six AK rifles with 55 magazines, two shotguns, two night vision binoculars, four radio sets, 32 unused grenades, one medical kit and a large quantity of ‘warlike stores’ were recovered from the dead terrorists.”

The slain policemen were identified as ASI Muhammad Akbar Mir, head constable Abdul Majeed Wani and constable Sanjay Kumar. The Army is yet to disclose the names of the soldiers who laid down their lives in the encounter. Army officials said their names could not be disclosed until their families were informed formally.