In a daring strike at least three car-borne terrorists, believed to be the cadre of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), targeted a quick reaction team (QRT) of the Indian Army on the outskirts of Srinagar in which two grievously injured soldiers attained martyrdom on Thursday. The attack coincided with the 12th anniversary of the Mumbai terror attack.
This is the second major terror strike along the National Highway in the last one week on the security forces.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army initiated an “unprovoked” ceasefire along the Line of Control in Degwar, Qasba and Kirni sectors of Poonch by targeting forward villages with mortar shelling. A junior commissioned officer, injured during the ceasefire violation by Pakistan along LoC in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district, succumbed to his injuries.
Four JeM terrorists were neutralised by the joint teams of security forces near Ban Toll Plaza along the Jammu Srinagar National Highway in Nagrota on November 19. These four JeM terrorists had sneaked inside the Indian territory via a cross border tunnel from the Samba sector.
The martyred jawans have been identified as Sepoy Ratan of 163 Battalion Territorial Army and Sepoy Deshmukh of 101 Battalion Territorial Army.
According to the Inspector General of Police, Kashmir range Vijay Kumar, “Car borne terrorists on Thursday afternoon opened indiscriminate firing on the road opening party of the Indian Army on the outskirts of Srinagar near Khusipora.” He said, we have scanned the CCTV footage to identify the real culprits. He, however, added the terrorists could be members of the JeM or LeT in Kashmir Valley.
Official sources claimed, the security forces are also working on the leads to establish whether the group of terrorists eliminated in these two encounters belonged to the same batch and had infiltrated in two different batches inside the Indian territory.
In a separate statement a police spokesman said, “At around 1.15 pm Srinagar police received information about a terror crime incident at Sharifabad HMT area of Srinagar where terrorists had fired upon an Army ROP party.” The spokesman said, “Preliminary investigation revealed that terrorists travelling in a Maruti car taking undue advantage of crowded place fired indiscriminately at Army party resulting in injuries to two Army jawans. The injured jawans were evacuated to hospital for treatment; however both of them succumbed to their injuries and attained martyrdom”. To avoid any major collateral damage in the crowded area the Army personnel exercised maximum restraint to avoid any civilian casualties, the spokesman said.
