Militants step up attacks

By Shujaat Bukhari

JAMMU, DEC. 5. Hours after Monday's fidayeen (suicide squad) attack, in which six Central Reserve Police Force soldiers and two militants were killed, militants stepped up attacks on the security forces today. Another CRPF camp in Anantnag was attacked in which one civilian was killed and five were injured. The Army foiled a similar attack in Kupwara, killing one militant. In Pulwama, three Indian Air Force personnel were injured in a blast.

In Anantnag, militants attacked a CRPF camp in a local hotel hours after the operation launched yesterday was called off. The militants hurled grenades and fired at the camp. The paramilitary forces retaliated. Six civilians were injured in the crossfire; one woman died on the spot. There was no loss of life or injury to the soldiers. The town is tense following the successive militant attacks.

It was officially confirmed that six CRPF personnel of the 61st Battalion were killed in Monday's Lashkar-e-Taiba attack at Heewan Cinema in Anantnag. Official sources said three militants followed a CRPF vehicle in a car, sneaked into the camp, hurled grenades and followed it with indiscriminate firing killing the sentry on the spot. The militant, who made his entry through the main gate, killed the CRPF jawans one by one. Eight other soldiers were wounded and have been hospitalised.

The encounter concluded only this evening. One militant was killed last evening and another today after giving a tough time to the security forces. However, some reports said intermittent firing was still going on.

Three IAF personnel were injured when their vehicle ran over a landmine in Padgampora, Pulwama district. The blast occurred a few kilometers from the IAF airport in Malangpora.

The Army foiled another attempt of a two-man fidayeen to sneak into a camp in Lolab Kupwara last night, according to a defence spokesperson. One militant was killed on the spot and another managed to escape. In an IED blast in Adipora, Baramulla, three Army soldiers were injured.

One released militant Khurshid Ahmed was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in Qaimoh Kulgam while as a woman, Malla, was shot dead by the militants in Pulwama, police said.

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