Militants attack Army camp in Jammu & Kashmir

Srinagar: Three Jaish-e-Muhammad militants were killed in Army’s retaliatory commando action following a ‘fidayeen’ attack on one of its camps in Tanghdar area close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Wednesday.

A local resident Tanveer Ahmed Sheikh, 25, working as a generator operator at the camp was also killed in the militant attack whereas two officers–deputy commandant Colonel Sunil Kumar and a Junior Commissioner Officer V.K. Reddy-of the Army were injured, reports said. Several barracks and Army vehicles inside the camp suffered severe damage in the ‘fidayeen’ attack.

The Army and police sources said that the militants targeted the battalion headquarters of its 3/1 GR unit in the Kalsuri ridge of Tanghdar area from the back with AK assault rifles and 40-mm Under Barrel Grenade Launcher at around 6:15 am after cutting a perimeter fence and penetrating the premises. They targeted Army barracks and vehicles with small arms and hand grenades, causing damage to them.

Also, an oil depot within the camp caught fire in the attack. The troops quickly retaliated to the fire and in the ensuing gunbattle which continued for seven hours all the three militants were killed.

Reports said that it were actually Army commandos who after being air-dropped near the camp killed the militants in the final assault.   Initial reports had said that an Army JCO was also killed in the fighting. But Army sources said that the JCO injured in the attack could not be lifted from the scene of encounter immediately and was presumed dead.

“He had actually fallen unconscious and has since been shifted to Army’s hospital at Dragmulla (Kupwara) and is stable,” sources said adding Colonel Kumar received minor injuries due to fall.

In first official confirmation of the attack, defence spokesman Lt. Col. N.N.Joshi said in the evening that the Army “in an alert and swift response to a terrorist strike killed threeterrorists in Tanghdar thus foiling an attempted suicide attack”.

He added that the militants had tried to sneak into an Army camp in the early hours of Wednesday after firing indiscriminately which resulted in the killing of one civilian and injuring one Army personnel.