Another Army officer has been killed in the ongoing encounter in Kashmir’s Pampore, taking the number of lives lost in the encounter so far to six.
The encounter has been on for more than 36 hours now. Three to five terrorists are still holed up in the complex, say security officers.
Captain Tushar Mahajan, 26, a resident of Jammu’s Udhampur, was hit by a volley of bullets while mop-up operations were being conducted at the third floor of the house the terrorists have been holed up in since yesterday.
On Saturday night, Army Captain Pawan Kumar, another soldier and two personnel of the Central Industrial security forces had been killed.
Jawans carry the body of Captain Pawan Kumar who lost his life in a gun battle with terrorists in Srinagar on Sunday.
The terrorists had attacked a Central Reserve Police Force convoy along the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Saturday afternoon. They had killed two CRPF men and a gardener and then sneaked into a nearby building – Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute – in Pampore.
Around 20 people including government employees who were trapped inside the main building of the complex were evacuated. Around 90 others were taken to safety from nearby buildings including a hostel.
The Army personnel, whose elite 15 Corps headquarters is located barely 10 km from the encounter site, were rushed in to assist the local police and the CRPF.
Captain Kumar, 23, was the head of the Para Special Force team that carried out the operation to flush the terrorists out of the building. He was critically injured when the group of special force personnel, after evacuating the entire area, stormed the building late last night.
Smoke billowing out of the JKEDI building where terrorists have reportedly taken refuge after launching an attack on a CRPF convoy at Samporam Pampore.
Lance Naik Om Prakash, also from the special forces, was killed during close combat with the terrorists. The 32-year-old is from Shimla in Himachal Pradesh.
The entire area around the encounter site remained sealed off and the highway was closed to traffic. All through the day, heavy firing combined with loud explosions could be heard from the site.
Late in the afternoon, the building caught fire — huge columns of smoke were seen coming from the roof of the building.
This is the first major fidayeen or suicide attack near Srinagar in last six years, when terrorists have captured a building and engaged the security forces for such a long time. Police say Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba is behind the attack.
