CISF officer, 2 Jaish men killed in Jammu

Ravi Krishnan Khajuria

JAMMU: A purported attempt by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) to carry out a suicide attack near Sunjuwan military station in Jammu was foiled after two terrorists were killed in an encounter in the early hours of Friday, police said.

An assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) was also killed while 10 security personnel were injured in the pre-dawn gunfight which came two days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the region, they added.

Modi is scheduled to visit Palli village of Samba on National Panchayati Raj Day on April 24. This will be his first visit to the region ever since the abrogation of Article 370 – that gave Jammu & Kashmir a special status, and bifurcated the state into two Union territories – on August 5, 2019.

Initial investigation revealed that the terrorists had entered the outskirts of Jammu city from the international border in R S Pura sector and were residing in a locality close to the military camp, an official familiar with the matter said on condition of anonymity. They were apparently moving towards the Army camp when they were spotted by guards who were changing duties at a joint check post, the official added.

Around the same time, a CISF bus carrying 15 personnel at Jalalabad near the camp was proceeding towards the Jammu airport. Apparently, in a kneejerk reaction at around 3.45am, the two terrorists lobbed a grenade towards the bus and sprayed it with bullets before escaping back into the nearby locality, prompting the security forces to lay a cordon around the area, the official said.