JAMMU: At least 13 persons, including four cops and a senior army officer, were killed in twin militant attacks on a police station and an army camp here on Thursday morning.
The attack comes a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left for the U.S. yesterday, where he is scheduled to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on Sunday for talks.
Dressed in army uniform, a group of three militants stormed a police station and then an army camp in Samba district, killing nine people. The army managed to kill all three militants who were holed up inside the army camp after around four hours
of gun-battle, taking the total number of casualties to 12. One army man later also succumbed to his injuries at a hospital.
As per official reports, four police personnel, including an ASI, a shopkeeper, a truck-cleaner and four army personnel, including a Lieutenant Colonel, were killed by the heavily-armed militants before they were killed.
The bodies of the militants remained in the army camp till late this evening as the security forces were carrying out sanitizing operation.
Sami-ul-Haq , spokesman of Shohada (martyrs) Brigade called up local newspaper offices in Srinagar and told them that three of their boys carried the attacks in Kathua and Samba. Indian intelligence agencies believe that the brigade is a pseudonym of Lashkar-e-Taiba, the banned Pakistani terrorist group.
The twin attacks came ahead of the September 29 scheduled meet between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the United States.
Police sources said a suicide squad after attacking a police station in Kathua district, boarded a truck on the national highway and commandeered the driver to arrive at an Army camp in Samba district. The fidayeen killed five Jammu & Kashmir Police personnel at the Kathua police station before striking the second time at16 Cavalry in Mesar area of Samba. An Army officer identified as Lt Col Bikram Jeet Singh and two soldiers were killed in the attack.
Police sources said a group of three terrorists barged into the Hiranagar police station of Kathua district, around 60 kilometers from Jammu city, at around 06:45 hours. The gunmen fired at the police station indiscriminately, killing five cops and then fled away towards the highway. “A group of militants had reportedly sneaked into the Indian territory from across the International Border (IB), which is close to Hira Nagar police station,” sources said.
“The terrorists, after the attack at the Hiranagar police station, probably boarded a truck on the national highway, at gun point. They shot dead the conductor and reached an Army camp in Samba district. Then they shot dead the truck driver too,” sources told aSrinagar based news agency.
On reaching Samba, about 40 kilometers from Jammu city, they entered the Army camp at Mesar, lobbed a grenade and fired indiscriminately.
“A fierce gun battle ensued between the suicide squad and the troops inside the Army base camp in which an Army officer (Lt Col) and four jawans were killed and four soldiers got injured,” a defence spokesman said.
“The area has been cordoned off while the traffic on Jammu-Pathankot national highway has been suspended due to the ongoing gun battle,” the spokesman said. The toll may rise as some of the injured people are critical.
In a similar attack on May 11, 2008 militants killed four people including a photojournalist in Kaili Mandi area of Samba district. On May 14, 2002, fidayeen killed at least 32 persons, most of them members of families of Army personnel, and injured over 60 at Kaluchak in one of the worst-ever terror attacks in Jammu & Kashmir.
Condemning the attacks, J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah extended his condolences to the families of those killed. He said the terror attacks were aimed to derail the peace process between India and Pakistan.
Injured in Hiranagar attack:
Constable Rattan Chand Assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Ganga Ram
Deceased identified:
Constable Shiv Kumar ASI Rattan Singh SPO Mukesh Kumar Constable Randeep Singh Suresh Kumar
Identity of cleaner of truck yet has not established
Deceased at Samba Army unit
Lt Col Bikram Jeet Singh Army jawan Reddy Army jawan Srinivasan
Terrorists came from across the border, Shinde says
The three terrorists who unleashed a fidayeen attack in Samba area of Jammu region, had infiltrated from across Pakistan early on Thursday morning, Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde has said.
Citing preliminary reports, Shinde revealed that the terrorists crossed over from Pakistan in the early hours and launched the attack — first on a police station and then on an Army camp.
“As per preliminary information, the terrorists came from across the border,” he told reporters here.
The attack is being seen as an attempt by the anti-India forces in Pakistan to derail the peace process with New Delhi ahead of a meeting between Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif in New York.
Endorsing this view, minister of state for home RPN Singh on Thursday said the Samba attack was an attempt to vitiate the atmosphere ahead of India-Pakistan talks. “Whenever talks are about to take place, such attacks take place,” he said.
Singh’s observation came even as the BJP demanded cancellation of the Manmohan-Sharif meet in view of the Samba skirmish that has left 12, including 2 civilians, dead. However, the MoS disagreed with the BJP’s demand, arguing how the NDA government had talked to the then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf even after the Kargil war.
Meanwhile, Union home secretary Anil Goswami said that the encounter between the terrorists and the security forces was still going on in Samba.
Goswami said the initial reports with the Union home ministry said a group of 3 to 4 terrorists struck at a police station in Hiranagar and then attacked an army camp near Samba district headquarters.
PM condemns terror attacks, vows to defeat terrorism
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday strongly condemned the “provocative” terror strikes in Jammu region by the “enemies of peace”, but said such attacks will not succeed in derailing efforts to resolve all problems through a process of dialogue.
Singh, who will be meeting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York on Sunday for talks, said: “the terrorist menace” continues to receive “encouragement and reinforcement” from Pakistan and India is firmly resolved to combat and defeat such forces.
“This is one more in a series of provocations and barbaric actions by the enemies of peace,” Singh said in a statement here en route to the US.
“Such attacks will not deter us and will not succeed in derailing our efforts to find a resolution to all problems through a process of dialogue,” he said, indicating that the talks with Sharif will go ahead as per schedule.
“No words are strong enough to condemn the heinous terrorist attack on Hira Nagar police station and Army camp at Sambha in Jammu & Kashmir this morning,” Singh said.
“I convey my heartfelt condolences to the families of the brave army and police officers as well as the innocent civilian martyred in this cowardly attack,” he added.
At the meeting on September 29, the Indian side will see what the new Pakistan Prime Minister, who has made “some nice statements” about the relationship, has to offer to address its concerns over ceasefire violations on the line of control and international border, continued terrorism and inaction against the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack.
Bilateral relations soured after five Indian soldiers were killed by Pakistani troops along the LoC last month.
India has also been urging Islamabad to take steps to stop terrorism emanating from Pakistani soil and to prosecute those responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks.