Jaish fidayeen squad knew exactly where to go: CRPF report
Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants who carried out a fidayeen attack in Kashmir’s Pulwama had in-depth knowledge of the heavily fortified police facility, indicating a thorough recce of the area before the attack, a preliminary probe has found.
At least eight security personnel were killed in the pre-dawn attack at the police headquarters in southern Pulwama on Saturday. The attackers were also killed. A CRPF official who has seen the findings of the probe said the precision strike indicated that the militants had prior information provided to them either through specific coordinates by their handlers in Pakistan or by someone who had comprehensive details about the premises.
The eight security personnel killed included four CRPF men.
Though authorities are yet to identify the slain militants, sources in CRPF said they were foreigners of Pakistani-origin and are suspected to have infiltrated through the Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir. JeM has claimed responsibility for the attack. The preliminary report gives details of how the attack unfolded with the heavily-armed suicide squad storming the premises around 4.40 am on Saturday.
Once inside, the militants separated and moved to three separate residential blocks.The area has four such blocks, each of which has 12 staff quarters, which means almost 36 families were present in the area, an official told HT. “They knew exactly where to go,” the official added.
Initial probe showed the militants fired at and injured CRPF personnel on their way to the reasidential blocks. According to a CRPF official, the plan might have been to attack the CRPF battalion headquarters adjacent to the police lines but retaliatory fire by security forces restricted the movement of the militants.
Security forces started evacuating the families including women and children. Though the militants failed to take any hostage, they shot dead two CRPF officials and one J&K police official.