Pampore Encounter: Two Captains, One Jawan, One Terrorist Killed

Security forces personnel take position outside the JKEDI building where militants have reportedly taken refuge after launching an attack on a CRPF convoy at Sampora Pampore, near Srinagar.

The 48-hour fierce gunbattle on the outskirts of Srinagar ended on Monday evening with the killing of three heavily-armed terrorists holed up in a government building situated along the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

Meanwhile, the last rites of 10 Paramilitary Army Captain Pawan Kumar will be conducted with full military honours today at his village in Jind of Haryana.

Police sources said 23-year-old Captain Pawan Kumar of the elite 10-Para Regiment was killed while storming the building with his men during the intervening night of Saturday and Sunday. He su ccumbed to injuries later.

Three Army para commandos, including two Captains, and three terrorists were killed during the encounter that started on Saturday.

Security forces on Sunday pressed drones into service to pinpoint the exact location of the guerrillas inside the building whose top floor has already been destroyed in the fire caused by the use of explosives to flush out the militants.

The Army said all three militants in the multi-storeyed Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) at Pampore in Pulwama district, about 15 km south of Srinagar city, belonged to a Fidayeen squad.

The building, which was constructed at a cost of Rs 17 crore, has now been handed over to civil authorities after security forces declared it safe, removing a live hand grenade and other material.

The army said Captain Tushar Mahajan and Lance Naik Om Prakash were members of the team that had launched the operation against the militants on Sunday.

“It is suspected that 5 to 6 militants were involved in the attack”, official sources said, adding: “It was not immediately known whether all of them (militants) are trapped in the EDI building or not”.

A large column of Army, J&K Police’s Special Operation Group and CRPF cordoned off the building and started evacuating almost 100 employees of the institute.