Pampore: The two terrorists who were neutralised at the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) here most probably had their allegiance to Pakistan-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let), said GOC Victor Force Major General Ashok Narula briefing reporters after the operation was over on Wednesday afternoon.
Divulging detail of the operation, Major General Narula told reporters, "At this moment, as we know there are two people who have been eliminated and two weapons have been recovered. As far as recoveries are concerned, we will give a list of all those things. In this operation, because there were too many rooms and too many floors, it was a tedious process."
He further said, "This was a very tricky operation, because it is a very huge building and we did not want any collateral damage as there were chances of civilians being inside; all those people were taken out first."
"We have taken our time; this one building, which has 60 rooms. It has a ground floor, six floors and all the 60 rooms have 60 bathrooms also and that is the reason it takes time, because we have to clear each and every room. It takes time, because drill for all is the same and we cannot be in hurry because of the collateral damage, and we did not want unnecessary problems in that. That is the reason it took time," said the GoC.
Elaborating on their operation, he said, "Day before, yesterday morning, we started; yesterday, we kept working on this and today morning we started working on clearing of the whole operation. As far as JKEDI is concerned, this is the centre of excellence in which our lot of brothers get employment. We actually feel very sad that for the second time they came and encountered and occupied this building, whereas this is our pride in Kashmir."
When asked why they decided not to go for house intervention and chose to fire from outside, Major General Narula said, "That is the normal drill that we generally do. Before going into an operation, we do fire from outside so that we are able to take care of it. Because there were too much of glass also, so we have to do a bit of percussion also, with that percussion the glasses break and you are able to see through it. And in any case, you have to keep firing because you have to first pin those people down and thereafter do something."
Two of the terrorists holed up in JKEDI, a government building, on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway. Official sources said, while one terrorist was killed yesterday, another was neutralised today during the operation to flush out them since Sunday.
Security forces resumed their operation this morning after being suspended late last night due to darkness.
The army has called its para commandos to neutralise the remaining terrorists. The exact number of the terrorists trapped inside is not yet known.
The building, where terrorists are trapped, suffered extensive damage as security forces fired dozens of rockets, mortar shells and triggered Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) to eliminate the militants. Security forces also used tear-smoke and pepper shells to bring the militants out from the building. Army, paramilitary forces and state police were jointly participating in the operation.
