JOIN US3 GREF labourers killed in attack
Three labourers working with the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF) were killed when heavily armed militants attacked their camp in Akhnoor sector of Jammu in the early hours of Monday.
Sources said militants launched an assault on the GREF camp at around 2 am in Battal area near the International Border in Akhnoor, 55 km from Jammu city.
“Terrorists first lobbed hand grenades at the camp followed by firing. Three labourers working for GREF were killed in the attack,” they said. The militants, whose exact number could not be ascertained, managed to escape after the attack, they added.
The GREF is the parent cadre force of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) that builds and maintains border roads in the country.
Defence PRO Manish Mehta confirmed the killing of three GREF labourers and said the area has been cordoned off and search operations are underway to nab the assailants.
However, sources said, the militants who had most likely infiltrated from across the border, might have gone back after carrying out the deadly attack.
"The border is just two kilometres from the spot of the attack and the militants might have taken advantage of the darkness to escape back to Pakistani side," they added.
A high alert was sounded across Jammu immediately after this year's first attack in the region, reports said.
On November 30 last year seven soldiers, including two majors, were killed when fidayeen (suicide) militants dressed as policemen stormed an army camp in Nagrota area on the outskirts of Jammu city.