Eight security personnel and three fidayeen (suicide) militants, were killed on Saturday in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir in recent months.
In a pre-dawn attack, at least three heavily-armed fidayeen, believed to be foreign mercenaries, stormed the district police lines (DPL) in southern Pulwama district around 4.15 am, where hundreds of police personnel and their families reside.
After forcing their way into the DPL premises, the militants resorted to indiscriminate firing and threw grenades in which two policemen and a CRPF trooper were killed and several others injured, police said.
Security forces had to evacuate nearly 50 families of policemen from the residential quarters inside the complex, which delayed the operation.
After evacuating nearly 150 people, the security forces engaged the militants, who were hiding in huge concrete buildings.
“Two SPOs (special police officers) who were inside the buildings were killed by the militants. Two CRPF personnel were killed when they were defusing one of the improvised explosive devices planted by the militants,” sources said.
State Police Chief Shesh Pal Vaid said the bodies of two militants have been recovered from the encounter site and body of one more militant is expected to be under the debris. He refuted the possibility of a security lapse that could be responsible for the attack, explaining that “you can’t prevent (an attack) if somebody is ready to die”.
Officials said the camp was targeted to inflict high casualties on policemen and their families.
The complex, that has been attacked, is situated in a high-security area and close to the Deputy Commissioner and SSP office on Shopian-Pulwama highway.
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