Militants storm army camp in Jammu, kill two soldiers
Women, children injured in living quarters; three ultras neutralised
JAMMU: Militants from the Pakistan-based outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) attacked the family quarters in Jammu’s Sunjuwan military camp on Saturday, killing two soldiers and injuring at least nine other people, including women and children, the army said.
A junior commissioned officer (JCO) and one non-commissioned officer were killed and the condition of two among the injured was stated to be serious. Three militants were gunned down by army personnel.
Army chief General Bipin Rawat reached Jammu to take stock of the situation. Special forces personnel were pressed into service to neutralise the militants. Late in the evening the army sent in four tanks, possibly for the final assault on the building where the attackers were holed up.
Defence spokesman Lt Col Devender Anand said around 7.20pm that two heavily armed terrorists, in army combat fatigues, were killed. “They were carrying AK56 assault rifles, large ammunition and hand grenades. A search of their belongings confirmed them to be from the JeM.” A third militant was killed later. Col Anand identified the two deceased armymen as Hony Lt Madan Lal Choudhary and Hav Habibullah Quereshi.
Both were residents of Jammu and Kashmir. Col Anand said operations were being conducted with extreme caution and restraint to safeguard unarmed soldiers, women and children in the houses. Most of the 150 houses in the complex had been cleared and the occupants moved to safety, he added.
“Three to four attackers breached the high security of Sunjuwan military station and were first spotted in the camp around 4.45am. After being challenged, they rushed to the family quarters of JCOs. It is suspected that three to four militants carried out the attack, so there might be one more holed up inside the family quarters,” said a security official who had been briefed about the situation.
The official added that due to the anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru, a high alert had been sounded in the state that the JeM may carry out an attack.
This was the second time in the last 15 months that militants struck an army camp in the Jammu region.
The attack led to renewed calls for fortifying military installations Jammu and Kashmir more effectively.
Home minister Rajnath Singh, who spoke earlier to state director general of police SP Vaid told reporters in Delhi that security forces were doing their duty and there was no doubt that the operation would be taken to its logical conclusion. CM Mehbooba Mufti expressed her anguish over the attack saying, “Deeply disturbed by the terrorist attack in Sunjwan today.”
Seventeen years ago in 2003, on a balmy June morning, two militants had cut through barbed wires to enter the Sunjuwan military base in Jammu to launch one of the most deadly attacks on an Indian defence installation.
The attack by the heavily armed Lashkar-e-Taiba militants (LeT) had left at least 12 soldiers dead and nine others injured, before they were shot dead after a five-hour-long gunbattle.
On Saturday, the military base came under attack again when a group of suspected Jaish-e-Mohammed militants stormed the camp.
At least one soldier has been killed in an ongoing encounter between security forces and the militants, whose number was yet to be ascertained.
The attack came amid an alert for possible terror attacks in view of the anniversary of hanging Mohammed Afzal Guru, the 2009 Parliament attack mastermind.
Spread over an area of around seven square km, secured with a compound wall of 10 to 12 foot in height and armed soldiers guarding it round the clock, the Sunjuwan military base in Jammu is a veritable fortress at first sight.
But, as a defence official said, “Though it was a security lapse as two terrorists managed to enter the military station, fidayeen (suicide) attacks are nearimpossible to thwart.”
“The military station has a jungle and dry wetland by the side of it. In fact, the military station was once a wetland and a jungle. The terrorists entered the camp through a nullah on its rear side,” he added.
The officer said that after the 2003 attack, the entire station was fortified with more bunkers, armed soldiers on various gates, concertina wires, digital iron gates and other surveillance gadgets.
He said that defence installations have always been the prime target of Pakistan-based outfits.
A floating population of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar have also settled around the station, whom a former army official identified as potential threats.
The front side of the station faces the Jammu-Srinagar by-pass road where big shopping malls and showrooms of various automobile companies have mushroomed in recent years.
Brigadier SS Saini, a war veteran, blamed previous governments for the attack, saying Rohingya and Bangladeshi settlements were allowed near the base.
“While a military station should not have any constructions within a 100 metre radius from its compound wall, in Sunjuwan, people have constructed their houses right next to our fence,” he said.
Saini also refuted allegations that the attack was due to failure on the part of the army.
“Had it been so, there would have been mass deaths inside the station.The sentry was the first responder and the QRTs (quick response teams) were quick to isolate them,” he added.
Sanjeev Sharma, a banker who lives in Channi Himmat Colony opposite the military station, said the ease with which the militants entered the camp showed that they had done a reconnaissance of the area.
The attack happened in the heart of Jammu, which clearly indicate that militant sympathisers helped them in locating the vulnerable stretch of the nullah to get inside the station, he added.
PAK ARMY SHELLS LOC AREAS IN JAMMUS’ POONCH
JAMMU : Pakistani troops launched mortars shells in civilian areas along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Saturday, police said.
There was no loss of life or injury to anyone.
“The Pakistan Army launched mortar shells in Khadi Karmara forward areas in Poonch around 11am on Saturday,” the official said.
The shells fell deep inside Indian territory along the LoC, triggering panic and fear among the residents. The Pakistan troops also launched shells along the LoC in Chakan Da Bagh forward area in Poonch, official said.
UNSAFE ZONE
On February 9, three army jawans were injured in intermittent firing and shelling by Pakistani troops along the LoC in Poonch district. On February 8, a 45-year-old woman was killed in shelling by the Pakistani troops along the LoC in Poonch’s KG sector. A total of 18 people, including ten security personnel, eight civilians, were killed in Pakistani shelling this year.
The army and other security forces are effectively doing their job and accomplishing their targets. RAJNATH SINGH , Home Minister
Pakistan must stop sending militants to India to avoid war and improve relations. War cannot solve any problem. FAROOQ ABDULLAH , National Conference chief
BJP should be begging forgiveness of the nation for its ‘abject mishandling’ of Jammu and Kashmir. OMAR ABDULLAH, Former CM