3 Jaish militants killed after Army camp attack

Three Jaish-e-Muhammad militants were killed in the Army’s retaliatory commando action following a “fidayeen” attack on one of its camps in Tanghdar area close to the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Wednesday.

A local resident Tanveer Ahmed Sheikh, 25, working as a generator operator at the camp was also killed in the militant attack whereas two officers — deputy commandant Colonel Sunil Kumar and junior commissioned officer V.K. Reddy — of the Army were injured, reports said. Several barracks and Army vehicles inside the camp suffered severe damage in the “fidayeen” attack.

Army and police sources said the militants targeted the battalion headquarters of the Army’s 3/1 GR unit on Kalsuri ridge in Tanghdar area from the back with AK assault rifles and 40-mm under barrel grenade launcher at around 6.15 am after cutting a perimeter fence and penetrating the premises. They targeted Army barracks and vehicles with small arms and hand grenades, causing damage to them. Also, an oil depot within the camp caught fire in the attack, the sources said.

The troops quickly retaliated to the fire and in the ensuing gun battle which continued for about seven hours all the three militants were killed, the sources said. Tanghdar is about 150 kilometres from summer capital Srinagar. Reports said that it was actually Army commandos who, after being air-dropped near the camp, killed the militants in the final assault.

Initial reports had said that an Army JCO was also killed in the fighting. But Army sources said that the JCO injured in the attack could not be lifted from the scene of encounter immediately and was presumed dead.

“He had actually fallen unconscious and has since been shifted to Army’s hospital at Dragmulla (Kupwara) and is stable,” the sources said. The sources also said that Colonel Kumar received minor injuries due to fall.

In first official confirmation of the attack, defence spokesman Lt. Col. N.N. Joshi said in the evening that the Army “in an alert and swift response to a terrorist strike killed three terrorists in Tanghdar thus foiling an attempted suicide attack”. He said the militants had tried to sneak into an Army camp in the early hours of Wednesday after firing indiscriminately, which resulted in the death of one civilian and injuring one Army personnel.

“The terrorists were effectively intercepted by the Army’s quick reaction teams which hemmed the terrorists in a cordon, thus preventing their escape. In the ensuing gun fight, three terrorists were killed,” he said adding three weapons have been found on the slain men and that “operations are in progress to fully sanitise the area.”

Jaish-e-Muhammad, while claiming responsibility, said that three of its cadres attacked the camp shortly after Fajr (dawn) prayers. Its spokesperson Muhammad Hassan Shah told journalists here over the phone that the militants “managed to inflict heavy damage on the Indian forces”. He also claimed “our mujahideen took positions on a ridge outside the Army base and started targeting the Indian troops from right, left and centre.”