Fidayeen attack: Officer among 4 CRPF personnel dead, ‘operation on’
Srinagar: At least four paramilitary CRPF personnel were killed, one of the due to heart attack and several others were injured in an attack by Jaish-e-Muhammad fidayeens attacked their training centre at Letpora area of south Kashmir’s Pulwama district during pre-dawn hours on Sunday.
Spokesman of the CRPF Rajesh Yadhav told news agency GNS that the “operation” was still underway. “So far four our personnel have lost their lives and one of them died due to heart attack.”
Official sources identified the slain trooper who died due to heart attack as Inspector Radio Operator Kuldeep Roy of 185 Hamachal Pradesh.
The other deceased have been identified as Sharifdin Ganie of 185 bn R/o Chadoora, Budgam, Head Constable Tufail Ahmad of 185 bn and Constable Rajender Nain r/o Rajasthan of 130 bn CRPF. As per sources two attackers of JeM were reportedly killed and the searches are on to recover their bodies.
As reported earlier, a group of militants believed to be two in number carried out the fidayeen attack at around 2:30 am by opening indiscriminate fire and lobbed grenades inside the camp. “All the attackers later entered inside the training centre of CRPF 185 bn and engage the troops in a gun battle”, they said.
The 4-storey building consists of 3 blocks, and block-one is used for officer’s family accommodation, 2nd block as main office while block three has been targeted by militants Soon after the attack, reinforcement of army’s special forces and SOG rushed to the spot and cordoned off the whole area amid fierce gunfight. In the initial exchange of gunfight, three paramilitary CRPF men were injured and have been evacuated to army’s 92 Base hospital Badimibagh, Srinagar.
Sources said constables Narender, who sustained bullet injuries on his calf muscle and Malve Samadhan, who sustained bullet injuries on his right shoulder, are stated to be out of danger.
When reports last came in, the exchange of firing was going on between the two sides. (GNS)
KV Correspondent
