SRINAGAR: Five paramilitary Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, including an officer, were killed and three others were injured in a pre-dawn fidayeen attack by Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) militants on their camp at Lethpora in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district on Sunday. Two Jaish militants were also killed in the ongoing gunfight. Of the five CRPF men, one died of heart attack during the operation.
Sources said three to four heavily armed Jaish militants stormed the 185th bn CRPF camp, which also serves as a training centre for troops inducted for counter-militancy operations in the Valley, around 2.10 am after firing on a patrol party and injuring two CRPF men.
“They did not enter the camp through the main gate but through the compound wall amid heavy gunfire and grenade attack. Once inside, they split and barged into different blocks,” they said. Sources said one or two militants stormed the main building comprising residential quarters of officials and office complex and control room.
“Another barged into nearby buildings and engaged the paramilitary personnel deployed in the camp in the gunfight,” they said. After the attack, army and police men also reached the spot and assisted the CRPF in flushing out the militants.
“The security personnel first rescued CRPF men and officials from the residential quarters and then launched an assault on the militants,” a CRPF official said.
The buildings inside the camp suffered heavy damage during the gunfight. J&K director general of police S P Vaid told the media that for the last two to three days there were inputs that Jaish militants were planning a fidayeen attack.
The official said the militants seemed to be well trained and engaged the security personnel in the fierce gunfight. The deceased CRPF men were identified as constable Sharif-ud-Din Ganai of Budgam, inspector Kuldip Roy of Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, constable Tufail Ahmad of Rajouri in Jammu, constable Rajendra Nain of Garisar in Rajasthan and constable Pradeep Kumar Panda of Sundargarh, Odisha.
The slain militants were identified as Manzoor Ahmad Baba and Fardeen Ahmad Khan, both residents of Pulwama. Yadav said the gunfight was still going on. He said one or two militants were inside the camp.
Jaish claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place five days after its top commander Noor Mohammad Tantray alias Noor Trali was killed in an encounter in Pulwama.
J&K DGP S P Vaid said the militants could not strike at right place and right time. “They did it yesterday”. Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti has condemned the killing of CRPF personnel. Terming the act as dastardly, she said violence had taken a heavy toll in the state, tearing apart of the social fabric and inflicting massive economic, academic and social losses besides the irreparable loss of human lives.