New Delhi: Three soldiers were killed and one seriously injured when militants opened fire at an army convoy in Pampore town along the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway on Saturday.
The militant action once again exposes the laxity in security in the two km stretch of Pampore where they have carried four major attacks in recent past, including the deadly attack on CRPF convoy.
The Pampore strike comes two weeks after two top commanders of Lashkar-e-Toiba were killed in encounters prompting the outfit to replace them with locals to head operations in South and North Kashmir.
The army convoy was on its way to Srinagar from Jammu when it was ambushed this afternoon.
"Militants came in a matador and after striking at the convoy went back in the same vehicle. This is a Lashkar attack," S P Vaid, JK special director general of police told News 18.
"They fired indiscriminately before escaping," said the official.
The security forces immediately retaliated and tried to chase the militants but their attempt wasn't successful.
However they recovered a magazine of a gun from a nearby lane. The entire area has been cordoned off and massive search operations have been launched to track down the militants responsible for the attack.
“Army and security forces retaliated and terrorists were forced to run away. There was huge public presence in the area so we could not fire openly. We always remain alert on the national highway," said Zulfikar Hassan, inspector general of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), operations.
This is the second major attack after November 29 Nagrota terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir.
On November 29, a group of heavily armed fidayeens, donning police uniforms, stormed into in the highly fortified camp of 166 field regiment and killed seven soldiers, including two Majors, at Nagrota on the strategic Jammu-Srinagar highway.
Three militants were later neutralised in the day-long gunfight.
Sixteen hostages— including 12 soldiers, two women, and two children, were safely rescued by army troops.
The attack comes at a time when security forces have renewed counter militancy offensive in which several top leaders of militants particularly Lashkar-e-Toiba have been eliminated.
On December 8, security forces killed two top commanders including one of the main conspirators of Udhampur terror attack in two day long gunfight at Hassanpora village of Arwani in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district.
One of the militants was identified Majid Zargar who was the south Kashmir chief of Lashkar.
On December 14, Lashkar-e-Toiba suffered another blow when security forces gunned down one its north Kashmir chief in Sopore.
Abu Bakar, a 27-year-old Pakistani divisional commander who was operating in north Kashmir since 2009, was killed in an encounter with security forces in Bomai village of Sopore.
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