The father of Captain Tushar Mahajan pays tribute to his son in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday. Capt. Mahajan lost his life in a gun battle with militants in Pampore, J&K. (Photo: Asian Age)
The father of Captain Tushar Mahajan pays tribute to his son in Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday. Capt. Mahajan lost his life in a gun battle with militants in Pampore, J&K. (Photo: Asian Age)
The Pampore attack in Jammu and Kashmir “appears to be” the handiwork of Lashker-e-Taiba terror outfit, CRPF director-general Prakash Mishra said on Monday. The CRPF said that the modus operandi adopted by the militants bore similarity to the attacks that had occurred in Udhampur in J&K and Gurdaspur in Punjab recently where security personnel were targeted.
Sources in the government said there is a constant attempt by terrorists and anti-India forces in Pakistan to keep the pot boiling in Kashmir and create unrest. The CRPF chief said initial inputs of the encounter, in which five security personnel and a civilian have been killed till Monday afternoon, suggested the involvement of LeT.
“Lashkar (LeT) appears to be behind this ... The operation is still on. It is suspected that there could be three-five militants who are involved in the attack. The assault by security forces is in its final stages,” Mr Mishra told journalists. He said it is understood that the militants are heavily armed with weapons like AK-47 assault rifles and grenades and “certainly” came prepared for a long operation given the huge cache of arms and ammunition they hold.
Mr Mishra, who had recently toured the Kashmir valley, said the area where the attack took place is a “volatile” zone as sometime back also militants had attacked a Central Reserve Police Force squad around here.
The paramilitary force chief said security forces are “always” on alert while making their movement in these areas as he refused to go into the specifics of any intelligence input being received in this regard.
Officials said while an assistant commandant-rank officer of CRPF Rakesh Raman was critically injured and admitted to a hospital ICU, area commander of the force and inspector-general (Kashmir zone) Atul Karwal and another trooper have received minor injuries while tackling the militants holed up in the EDI building.
The assault inside the building was later taken over by the Army which has lost two Captain-rank officers and a Lance Naik from the elite Para (Special Forces) unit.
While two CRPF men were killed on Saturday when militants attacked a 300 personnel-strong bus convoy of the force while they were going from Jammu to Srinagar, nine others on the bus were injured during the attack.
Mr Mishra said it is suspected that the militants came to attack the convoy of the force and may not have a plan to take hostages in the EDI building.
The CRPF chief DG said the escort party of the convoy that came under attack mounted an effective retaliation and hence the militants fled and hid in the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) building.
