J&K: Three more Armymen, one civilian killed

Srinagar: Three more Army personnel and a civilian were killed as the standoff between Jaish-e-Muhammad militants and security forces at an Army base in Jammu continued for the second day on Sunday, taking the total toll till now to 10, including five Armymen, one civilian and four terrorists. The authorities said that one more militant has been killed, in addition to the three JeM attackers who were gunned down on Saturday.

“The operation to flush out terrorists is on and the evacuation (of people from the family quarters within the base) is in progress,” said Jammu-based deference spokesperson Lt. Col. Devender Anand.

“There was no firing since last night,” he added. Five Army men, including two junior commissioned officers (JCOs), and the father of a soldier have been killed in the attack by the terrorists who struck at the sprawling Sunjwan camp of the 36 Brigade of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JKLI) shortly before dawn on Saturday, an Army spokesperson said.

Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, who had reached Jammu on early Sunday, reviewed the situation and held a meeting with senior Army officials. A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) also reached Jammu to begin their probe into the terror attack.

After the attack, troops from the Army’s special forces, members of the J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and those of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) had rushed to the spot and cordoned off the whole area amid a fierce gunfight. They were later joined by the IAF Para commandos airlifted to Jammu from the garrison town of Udhampur and Sarsawa in Haryana.

The officials said that three more Army personnel killed in militant firing and grenade attacks are Havaldar Habibullah Qureshi, Naik Manzoor Ahmed and Lance Naik Muhammad Iqbal, whose father also died. Two other Armymen killed in the initial militant attack are JCO Subedar Madan Lal Chaudhary of 4 JAKLI and Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Muhammad Ashraf Mir of 1 JAKLI.

The injured are Major Avijit Singh of 6 Mahar (head injury), Lance Naik Bahadur Singh of 1 JAKLI (multiple injuries), Havaldar Abdul Hamid Rashid of 1 JAKLI (head injury) and family members of the soldiers Paramjeet Kaur (40), Neha (20) who is the daughter of the slain JCO, and Somati Jena (head injury).