Army battles terrorists in govt bldg near Srinagar

SRINAGAR: Security forces were on Monday battling a group of militants holed up in a government building in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pampore, the second such attack on

SRINAGAR: Security forces were on Monday battling a group of militants holed up in a government building in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pampore, the second such attack on the complex in eight months.

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An Army spokesperson said an unconfirmed number of militants entered the J&K Entrepreneurship Development Institute near Pampore, 12km from here, early Monday. “There was an engagement in the morning. One of our jawans is injured,’’ the spokesman said of the strike, the latest in a string of attacks in the border state in the last few weeks.

Housed in a three-building complex, the institute, which trains and finances youngsters to be entrepreneurs, was also targeted in late February. A three-day fierce gunfight had left seven people, including three army commandos, dead. Monday’s gun battle, too, showed signs of a long-drawn fight. Militants holed up on the sixth and seventh floors of the hostel building had used beds and almirahs as barricades against the army, sources said. A part of the building appeared damaged by fire.

Only a few cooks were in the building and they were evacuated. The unrest in the Valley, which is in its fourth month, has kept students away from the institute.

Locals said they heard three gunshots at around 6.30am and the militants could have taken a boat to enter the EDI complex situated on the banks of river Jhelum.

The militants reportedly tried to set fire to the EDI building. Initially the commotion was dismissed as a fire incident by police but a gunfight erupted the moment security forces reached the complex to douse the fire.

The militants, said experts, had an advantage as the building had many small rooms, making it easy for them to shift positions and hard for the forces to track them.

There has been a spurt in militant activity in the Valley as well as along the Line of Control after suspected Pakistani gunmen attacked an Uri army camp on September 18, killing 19 soldiers.

India responded to the assault by hitting infiltrators preparing to sneak into India from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on September 29.

The ties between the two countries have worsened after the surgical strikes, with rhetoric on Kashmir getting shriller and guns booming on the de facto border.