Army fires mortar bombs, rockets in final assault against militants in J&K

The entire area has been cordoned off as security forces are engaging heavily with the terrorists.

Srinagar

: In their final assault against holed up militants, Army troops have fired mortar bombs and rockets on a multi-storey building at an official campus outside Jammu and Kashmir’s highway town of Pampore, 16-km south of capital Srinagar.

The light artillery fire is aimed mainly at the top floor of the main block at J&K Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JK EDI) campus where the militant trio was earlier restricted to by Army troops including crack teams from its Para Special Force. The troops stormed the building around noon on Sunday and then using their highly specialised combat skills began securing the floors one after one.

However, in their attempt to overrun the building, two Army captains Pawan Kumar and Tushar Mahajan and corporal Om Prakash laid down their lives. Earlier on Saturday the militants believed to be one local and two foreigners had ambushed a Srinagar-bound convoy of CRPF killing two jawans and and injuring nine others. In the subsequent shootout, an employee of the JK EDI Abdul Gani Mir, 48, also lost his life.

The gunmen then entrenched themselves in the main block of the campus. They were quickly surrounded by security forces from Army, CRPF and J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations Group (SOG).

Police officials here confirmed that the trio has been cornered in the top floor of the building. Heavy firing and shelling is underway and loud booms are heard at a distance.

The firing which had stopped at nightfall on Sunday resumed with the first light on Monday. Earlier the officials had said that the militants were using 'shrewd' and 'dodging' tactics against combat forces and have used their ammunition judiciously. Before the troops stormed the premises around noon on Sunday, the militants were advantageously positioned in the main concrete multi-storey block at the campus. After the troops stormed the building, the militants scattered and then started moving from room to room and floor to floor.

Army has also used Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) fitted with cameras to know the position of militants.