Security forces gun down 2 terrorists in J&K's Pantha Chowk DPS

Srinagar: The militant duo trapped inside a school in Srinagar after they killed a CRPF Sub-Inspector and injured a constable in a sneak attack on Saturday was killed in a gun battle which lasted for over 17 hours on Sunday.

Officials said that the militants targeted a stationary CRPF vehicle at Pantha Chowk along the Srinagar- Jammu highway and about 6 kilometres from the City centre Lal Chowk at round 5:30 pm on Saturday. CRPF SI Sahab Shukla was killed and constable driver Nisar Ahmed and a civilian pedestrian were injured.

The assailants after the attack rushed into nearby Delhi Public School (Srinagar) campus which was encircled by the security forces to start operation to flush them out. The officials said that a gunfight broke out around midnight between the security forces and holed up militants. An Army Captain and two other security personnel were injured in the encounter.

“There condition is stable now,” officials said.

Shortly before dawn huge blasts erupted inside the camps which was followed by intense firing from automatic weapons. Reporters and TV crews were not allowed to go near the encounter site.

Later the security forces officials announced that both the militants have been “neutralised” and that their bodies were lying inside.

J&K Police Chief, Shesh Paul Vaid, while speaking to reporters said that the enemy has nefarious designs to destroy school buildings in the Valley “so that our children abandon their studies”.

He added that the operation at the DPS (Srinagar) was carried out meticulously. “The staff and whoever was inside the building was evacuated yesterday. Cordon was maintained and we have had room intervention done and got these terrorists eliminated, but with minimum collateral damage,” he said. He also said that the security forces ensured that school property stayed safe “because the enemy has a nefarious design that the school buildings are destroyed and children have nothing to study and ultimately abandon their studies. We will foil such attempts.”

Replying to questions, he said that the operation drew longer because it was a huge building having 36 rooms and halls and long corridors and balconies and the security forces had to search and secure these one by one. The school has six more buildings.

The attack on the CRPF was owned by Lashkar-e-Taiba.

On Saturday evening while the security forces were readying for the operation, a policeman accidentally fired his weapon injuring a J&K policeman and a CRPF jawan.

The authorities imposed security restrictions under Section 144 CrPc in the four kilometres radius area and Ram Munshibagh - Sempora stretch of the Srinagar-Jammu highway to enable smooth operation and prevent people from relocating to the encounter site. Mobile 3G and 4G Internet services were suspended and the speed of broadband on fixed landline was also brought down in the Kashmir Valley “as a precautionary measure.”