Encounter in J&K’s Pampore ends

After attacking the bus, the guerrillas entered the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI) complex situated close to the highway.

Captain Pawan Kumar, who hailed from Haryana’s Jind, sustained grievous injuries in militant firing as security forces tried to make their way into the building in the wee hours today, an army official said. He said one CRPF head constable was killed while 10 other security personnel were injured in the initial attack.

Captain Pawan Kumar, a 23-year-old 10 Para Special Forces officer, was killed while leading his men into the building on Saturday in what the Army described as a “tricky deliberate operation”.

There are conflicting reports whether this is a fidayeen (suicide) attack or the terrorists took position in the building after targeting the CRPF convoy on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.

The elite corp along with state police and the CRPF, successfully evacuated as many as 115 civilians from all nearby buildings of the office premise which is now under attackers’ control.

Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel N N Joshi said he was waiting for official confirmation about the killing of all the three militants. Meanwhile, a civilian was also killed in the encounter.

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.

Around three suspected LeT militants are engaged in a fierce gunbattle in EDI building here in Pampore since last Saturday.

At least two more attackers are believed to be holed up inside the EDI building, which has been cordoned off. “We wanted to move cautiously to eliminate them”, Dutta said, adding: “If army had not exercised restraint, there would have been collateral damage”. A senior police officer said the security forces have entered the ground floor, while the terrorists are holed up on the upper floors.

The protesters had defied curfew-like restrictions and were trying to carry out a march towards the site of the gunfight.