Militants fire at Army convoy

Suspected militants riding a motorcycle allegedly targeted an Army convoy with gunfire here on Saturday, days after 10 people were killed in twin terror attacks on a police station and an Army base in Kathua-Samba region of Jammu and Kashmir. In the latest incident, Army and CRPF personnel deployed in Bagh-e-Haider area along the Srinagar-Baramulla (bypass) road returned militant fire but the assailants managed to escape. One civilian passerby was injured, the police said. As-Shohada Brigade, an obscure outfit which had claimed responsibility for Thursday’s twin strikes, said two of its men attacked the Army convoy. The incident comes hours after a group of militants was sighted in Kathua district, not very far from Hira Nagar police station which was attacked by militants on Thursday morning, resulting in the deaths of four policemen and two civilians before the militants stormed an Army camp in neighbouring Samba district. The second attack left a lieutenant colonel and three soldiers dead and several others wounded. All three militants were killed in an Army counter-attack. Reports from Kathua said a group of suspects was noticed by the locals in a remote village of Dayalachak area. They quickly informed the police following which police parties and Army troops rushed to the spot and started searches after closing the Jammu-Pathankot highway to traffic. “We’re on it but no contact has been established with the suspects as yet,” said a police official.