Two fidayeen shot dead as J-K encounter ends

Two fidayeen who had stormed a Central Reserve Police Force camp in a hotel along Dal Lake were killed...

Two fidayeen who had stormed a Central Reserve Police Force camp in a hotel along Dal Lake were killed after a night-long encounter with the paramilitary force and Jammu and Kashmir Police.

Director General of Police Kuldeep Khoda said on Thursday evening, at around 6.15 pm, the two fidayeen sneaked into the CRPF camp located at Hotel Boulevard Dalgate after hurling grenades. “After a quick retaliation by CRPF personnel, the fidayeen got holed up in the parking area next to the camp and took up positions near the junk lying there,” he said.

Khoda said police along with the CRPF quickly surrounded the area and there was an exchange of fire in the early part of the evening. “In an effort to minimise the casualties and to avoid damage to the nearby commercial property, night assault was avoided and close-quarter battle weapons were used,” he said, adding that the mopping up operation was done at around 5 am on Friday, resulting in the death of two Pakistani militants identified as Abu Hashim and Abu Zahid, as per documents found on them.

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Two AK-56 rifles, eight magazines, four grenades, 52 rounds of ammunition and one mobile phone were also recovered from the encounter site. The DGP said only three personnel of the CRPF received minor injuries in the initial attack, who were discharged after receiving first aid in the Unit MI Room.

CRPF spokesman Prabhakar Tripathi said it was a clean operation. “There was no collateral damage at all. With the assistance of SOG (Special Operations Group), the two militants who had sneaked into the camp were eliminated after a night-long operation.”

Soon after the attack, Lashkar-e-Toiba claimed responsibility. An LeT spokesman called newspapers offices in Srinagar and claimed that three fidayeen had sneaked into the CRPF camp on Wednesday evening. The spokesman said one of the fidayeen, however, managed to break the cordon and escaped from the spot. Police and the CRPF, however, ruled out the possibility of any militants’ escape.

There has been a steep rise in violence in the holy month of Ramzaan and security forces have already killed more than 50 militants during different operations across the Valley. This includes five infiltration bids by the militants, which were intercepted by the Army along the Line of Control. The latest fidayeen attack on the Boulevard Road has broken a long lull in Srinagar city, where the police had successfully prevented half-a-dozen militant attempts to conduct suicide strikes in the past many months.