Two militants were shot dead while five security personnel lost their lives after heavily-armed terrorists attacked a CRPF training centre in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir in the wee hours of Sunday, according to the the CRPF.
Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility for the Fidayeen attack, which was carried out by three JeM militants. The third militant manged to remain engaged in an encounter with security forces till late afternoon. Search operations are on to locate him.
The militants stormed the 185th battalion camp of the Central Reserve Police Force in Lethpora in Kashmir valley around 2 am.
Heavily armed militants entered the camp at around 2.10 a.m., after hurling grenades and resorting to gunfire.
Names of the CRPF jawans who lost their lives in encounter today are: Ct Sharief-ud-din Ganaie, Insp Kuldip Roy, HC Taufail Ahmed, Ct Rajendra Nain and Ct Pradeep Kumar Panda.
The militants gunned down by security forces have been identified as Manzoor Ahmad Baba of Pulwama and Fardeen Ahmad Khanday of Tral.
Director General of Police S P Vaid said that security forces had an input about an impending militant strike in the Kashmir Valley for the past three days.
Terming the attack as unfortunate, Vaid said as long as Pakistan keeps sending militants, security forces and people of Kashmir will continue to go through this.
Meanwhile, Nirmal Singh, Deputy Chief Minister, J&K blamed neighboring nation for propagating terrorism in the Valley. "In desperation and frustration, Pakistan does cross-border firing, attacks our posts, kills our civilians. We are replying to them and they are facing defeat. Pakistan has been exposed and isolated on diplomatic front," Singh said on Sunday.
