SRINAGAR: The over 20-hour-long gunfight between holed up militants and the security forces continued in Srinagar on Tuesday as fresh firing exchanges started.
Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) militants are holed up inside an under-construction building in Karan Nagar area since Monday after they were forced to withdraw and later trapped inside the building following their failed terror bid on a CRPF camp.
The militants had entered this building after an alert sentry at the observation post of 23 battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) spotted them and fired.
One CRPF trooper was killed during the gunfight while a constable of the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police was injured.
Immediately after the shoot-out, J&K police’s Special Operations Group (SOG) and CRPF commandos were rushed to the spot to take on the militants and flush them out from the building.
The security personnel also laid siege around the area to prevent militants from escaping. The locals were also evacuated from the area.
The intermittent gunfire and explosions rattled the area throughout the day.
The deceased CRPF jawan was identified as Mujahid Khan of 49 Bn.
On the other hand, another fresh attack was averted on Tuesday by alert guards at the entrance of an army camp in Jammu.
Two motorcycle-borne militants approached the entry point of the army camp in Domana area around 4.30 a.m. They fired towards the sentry post. As the guards retaliated the terrorists were forced to flee, informed sources in the police said.
"A search operation is now underway to trace the militants," they said.
The attacks come close on the heels of another audacious attack at the Sunjuwan army camp in Jammu on Saturday in which a group of three heavily armed Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants entered the camp killing five soldiers and a civilian. Three attackers were also killed in the process, while eleven others were injured too.
(With Inputs from ENS)