Three militants and an officer of Border Security Force (BSF) were killed when heavily armed fidayeen of Jaish-e-Muhammad stormed a paramilitary camp near Srinagar Airport at Humhama on city outskirts today.
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Munir Khan told a press conference here that at around 4 am, a group of three militants attacked 182 Battalion BSF camp at Humhama. He said that the “attack was very effectively repulsed in the first go itself”. “One of the militants was killed at the very first moment. The two other militants while taking advantage of the darkness managed to sneak inside the camp housing administrative block and SOs mess,” he said.
According to GNS, the IGP said that the quick reaction teams (QRTs) of BSF started an operation against the militants and after sometime these QRTs were joined By CRPF, Police while Army’s 53 RR laid the outer cordon. “The searches for the terrorists were started and both were eliminated after brief gunfight. One of them was hiding in administrative block while another in SOs mess,” he said.
The Kashmir Police chief said the attackers were from Jaish-e-Muhammad outfit and were part of same group that sneaked into Kashmir from Jammu region in July-August month and carried out a fidayeen attack at Pulwama Police Lines. He “complimented” the BSF for “very effectively” repulsing the attack and foiling immediate damage. “Unfortunately we lost one ASI of BSF and three others sustained injuries,” he said.
The IGP said that “as long as Pakistan is our neighbor, these things will keep happening”. “We have no doubt that it is a group of JeM which is responsible. I believe they have also taken responsibility,” said the police chief. He said that some 6-7 members of the JeM group are still roaming freely but hoped to neutralize them soon. The IGP further said that the forces could have used aerial weapons but they avoided to prevent collateral damage in the area.
He said that the government forces are ready to take on fidayeen militants. “You saw it today how prepared we are,” he said. The IGP lashed out television channels for misreporting and said that the attack was not on Srinagar Airport as was reported by them. He said that such kind of reporting will have bearing on State’s tourism and urged them to report facts.
Meanwhile, the flight operations at Srinagar Airport were resumed at around 11:00 am and all the stranded passengers were allowed to proceed towards the airport terminal. (GNS)