J S Sandhu, General officer Commanding of Srinagar-based XV Corps, said it is a “fidayeen” (suicide) attack. Eight security personnel, including four CRPF men, were killed when militants carried out a Fidayeen attack on a district police complex (DPC) in the restive area of Pulwama, resulting in a heavy gunfight in which the three terrorists were gunned down.
The terrorist attack took place at the crack of dawn when the militants, believed to be foreign militants, entered the police complex in the Pulwama district, 25 km from capital Srinagar.
Among those killed four were from the CRPF, one was a constable of Jammu and Kashmir Police and three were Special Police Officers working with the state police. Two of the four CRPF personnel were killed at the fag end of the operation when they were defusing one of the improvised explosive devices planted by the militants. Director General of Police S P Vaid said it was a sad day for security forces who suffered such a heavy causality.
“However, the soldiers fought bravely and we are only more determined to erase the terrorism from the entire state,” he said. A police official said that one of the militants came out of a building and fired indiscriminately during the encounter. “He was gunned down on the spot,” the official said. The Jammu and Kashmir authorities have suspended mobile internet services in the district as a precautionary measure.
