“Hijacked Truck, Auto to reach targets”
SRINAGAR: The militants who attacked a police station and an Army cantonment in a span of about two hours in Jammu and Kashmir this morning are suspected to have crossed over into India only last night.
Despite that, and in what points to a serious security lapse, they managed to make their way from Jandi village on the border with Pakistan to Hiranagar in Kathua district of Jammu, where they attacked a police station and killed cops, before hijacking a truck and driving to the Samba district to attack an armoured corp unit.
Intelligence sources have said that units in the Jammu area had been warned that fidayeen or suicide attackers could launch a strike and yet the group of three heavily-armed militants seem to have entered the Army cantonment in Samba with ease, walking into the officer’s mess and shooting dead five people.
Among those who have died in the second attack is a lieutenant colonel, the second-in-command of the 16 Cavalry armoured corp unit. The Commanding Officer has bullet injuries.
The Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said, “I am sure I will be right in suggesting that this infiltration took place in the last 12-24hours.”
The militants first hijacked an auto or tempo truck used to ferry vegetables from Jandi to travel to the Hiranagar police station. They killed the sentry at the gate, walked in and shot dead three cops.
The attackers then hijacked a truck, killed the cleaner and forced the driver to drive them to the adjoining district of Samba. About a kilometer from the 16 Cavalry camp, they abandoned the truck, the Army said.
It is not yet clear how they entered the camp. There is speculation that they either overpowered guards and entered through the gate or then cut barbed wire to smuggle into the camp.
A gun battle is still on at the Army camp. There are reports that two of the militants have been killed.
This is the worst attack in Jammu in over 10 years.
It comes just three days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in the US.
Omar Abdullah said “if the aim of the militants was to scuttle the US talks between Indian and Pakistani prime ministers, then the ‘best way’ to defeat their purpose will be to go ahead with the meeting”.
(NDTV)
