Terror returned with a vengeance to Jammu & Kashmir on Thursday, with the worst Fidayeen attack in a decade in Jammu killing 10 people and casting a dark shadow over the sputtering peace process between India and Pakistan.
By the end of the day, 10 people including four soldiers, four policemen and two civilians were dead in two attacks carried out by a group of three Fidayeen attackers. Among those killed is believed to be a Lt Colonel. The three militants, who authorities believe had come across the border from Pakistan, were killed by the Army. Explaining the sequence of events, police officials told reporters that the group of militants appeared at around 6:45 am on the main gate of the Hira Nagar police station in an auto rickshaw, which they had hijacked from Jindi, a village near the international border. After killing the guard at the main gate, they barged into the police station and resorted to indiscriminate firing, killing three other policemen including an assistant sub-inspector of police. The militants also attacked the lock-up in the police station, which had a Kashmiri truck driver and his cleaner who had been arrested by the police in some case. They killed the truck cleaner, took away the driver and asked him to drive them in a truck parked outside the station to Samba, where they let the driver to go.
The trio then entered the garrison housing the 16 Cavalry Armoured regiment though a loose fence and once in, went to the officers’ mess where the camp’s commanding offer and his deputy were present and were shot at close range. The deputy commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel BJ Singh, died of bullet injuries. The militants were killed in the afternoon in the ensuing assault by the Army.
A little known group called the Shohada Brigade (Martyr’s Brigade) claimed responsibility for the attack.
While the Samba attack dominated news, the Army was locked in another major confrontation deep inside the forests in Keran sector (Kupwara), where nearly a dozen infiltrators are presumed dead in an operation that has been underway since Tuesday.
By the end of the day, 10 people including four soldiers, four policemen and two civilians were dead in two attacks carried out by a group of three Fidayeen attackers. Among those killed is believed to be a Lt Colonel. The three militants, who authorities believe had come across the border from Pakistan, were killed by the Army. Explaining the sequence of events, police officials told reporters that the group of militants appeared at around 6:45 am on the main gate of the Hira Nagar police station in an auto rickshaw, which they had hijacked from Jindi, a village near the international border. After killing the guard at the main gate, they barged into the police station and resorted to indiscriminate firing, killing three other policemen including an assistant sub-inspector of police. The militants also attacked the lock-up in the police station, which had a Kashmiri truck driver and his cleaner who had been arrested by the police in some case. They killed the truck cleaner, took away the driver and asked him to drive them in a truck parked outside the station to Samba, where they let the driver to go.
The trio then entered the garrison housing the 16 Cavalry Armoured regiment though a loose fence and once in, went to the officers’ mess where the camp’s commanding offer and his deputy were present and were shot at close range. The deputy commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel BJ Singh, died of bullet injuries. The militants were killed in the afternoon in the ensuing assault by the Army.
A little known group called the Shohada Brigade (Martyr’s Brigade) claimed responsibility for the attack.
While the Samba attack dominated news, the Army was locked in another major confrontation deep inside the forests in Keran sector (Kupwara), where nearly a dozen infiltrators are presumed dead in an operation that has been underway since Tuesday.
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