Close on the heels of army chief General Bipin Rawat’s maiden visit to Crossed Swords Division in Akhnoor on January 5, at least three casual labourers with the General Reserve Engineer Forces (GREF) of Border Roads Organisation were killed and one was injured in a terror attack on a GREF camp, barely 2 km from the Line of Control (LoC) here, on the intervening night of Sunday and Monday.
This village, virtually on the zero line in Akhnoor sub division of Jammu district, is over 105 km from the winter capital.
It was the first terror attack of 2017 in Jammu, after the Nagrota terror attack on an army cantonment on November 29 last year that left seven soldiers dead.
The dead were identified as Salman Khan, son of Muzaffar Hussain, Irshad Alam, son of Mohammad Alam, both natives of Pratappur in Uttar Pradesh and Ramesh Topno, son of Sahil Topno of Jharkhand.
{{/usCountry}}The dead were identified as Salman Khan, son of Muzaffar Hussain, Irshad Alam, son of Mohammad Alam, both natives of Pratappur in Uttar Pradesh and Ramesh Topno, son of Sahil Topno of Jharkhand.
{{/usCountry}}The injured was identified as Abdul Aziz, son of Sajad Ali from Pratappur in Uttar Pradesh.
“Last night around 1.10am, I heard gunshots. Our village being close to the LoC, I thought it to be a ceasefire violation by Pakistani forces but soon I realized that it was an attack,” 58 year old Baaj Ram told Hindustan Times.
Besides a GREF camp, the army also had three to four camps in the area.
In the last week of November, seven soldiers, including two Majors, were killed in Jammu’s Nagrota when militants dressed as policemen stormed a military camp.
The brazen attack was the second in as many months since the siege of another army base in Kashmir’s Uri left 19 Indian soldiers dead, spiking tensions between India and Pakistan.
Brazen militant attacks on Indian forces in 2016
(With agency inputs)