57-hour Pampore standoff ends, both terrorists killed

The security forces come out after a three-day gunbattle that killed both militants hiding inside a multistoreyed government building in Pampore. (Photo: H.U. Naqash)

A 57-hour standoff outside Jammu and Kashmir’s highway town of Pampore ended on Wednesday evening with the killing of both militants holed up inside a 7-storey government building which was pounded with mortar and rocket fire by security forces.

Officials said the two killed were “exceptionally motivated and highly trained terrorists”, most probably belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who used the 7-storey building as a concrete bunker. “It was a step-by-step kind of control-gaining operation to avoid casualties as the terrorists were well positioned inside the building,” said an officer.

This is the second time in eight months when militants have used the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) compound as cover to attack soldiers. In February, three soldiers, as many militants and a civilian were killed during a gunbattle that also raged for three days on the compound, about 16 km south of summer capital Srinagar.

In a “decisive” assault on Wednesday morning, five commandos of the Army’s Parachute Regiment used a ladder to enter the battered building through a first-floor window. Security forces announced the operation was over after a search of around 50 rooms and as many washrooms.

Security forced killed one militant on Wednesday. His accomplice had been killed on Tuesday. In the initial stage of the operation, one Army jawan was injured. This is the latest in a string of attacks since India conducted a military operation across the Line of Control to avenge a deadly attack by Pakistan-backed terrorists in Kashmir’s Uri last month.

The militants had taken up positions after barging into the sprawling campus at about 6.30 am on Monday. Nobody was present inside since the JKEDI — like other institutions in the Valley — has been shut for more than three months amid violence and unrest triggered by Hizb-ul-Mujahedin commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani’s encounter killing.

The Army’s special forces rushed to the spot from a nearby cantonment. Also, paramilitary forces, besides CRPF and J&K police men joined them to encircle the campus along the Srinagar-Jammu highway.

The operation was suspended at the nightfall and resumed with first light on Tuesday and Wednesday. In the February standoff, three Army officials had been killed trying to move in at night.

Over 50 rockets and hundreds of grenades besides machineguns and small arms were used in the operation, causing extensive damage to the building. During the operation, the Army — assisted also by the BSF — used “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” for surveillance and reconnaissance.