Seven personnel of the Indian Army, including two officers, were martyred today when suicide bombers carrying guns and grenades stormed into a military base near Nagrota in Jammu.
The terrorists lobbed grenades and opened fired at jawans around 5:30am, news agency PTI reported.
"Two Army officers and five jawans lost their lives in Nagrota Attack. Combing operation is underway," Manish Mehta, Defence PRO, said in a statement.
“Three heavily armed terrorists in police uniform entered officers’ mess building complex, fired heavily and attacked with grenades,” he said.
“12 jawans, two ladies and 2 children were inside. There was hostage like situation which was successfully neutralised,” he added.
Nagrota, located some 15 km from Jammu, is the headquarters of the Army's 16 corps.
In view of the attack, the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway has been closed for traffic in the area. The district administration has closed all schools in Nagorta tehsil as a precautionary measure.
Police sources said that an unknown number of militants barged into the military camp at Nagrota town, near the headquarters of the Indian Army's 16 Corps -- a military formation that acts as a nerve centre to fight militancy and defend the borders in Jammu region.
A police officer said that the militants carrying automatic weapons and explosives entered the field regiment camp around 5.30 a.m. They started firing indiscriminately at the Officers' Mess inside.
Three militants killed in Samba
As soldiers battled the militants in Nagrota, another gunfight raged in Samba, some 40 km south of here. A police officer said that the BSF engaged a group of infiltrators from Pakistan in a shootout near the International Border.
Three militants were killed by the BSF in the heavy exchange of fire during which an ammunition dump caught flames and exploded, critically injuring at least six border policemen, including an officer of the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) rank, BS Kasana.
The six, including Special Operation Group Inspector Sarabjit Singh, were taken to a hospital here, a police officer said, adding their condition was serious.
The violence on Tuesday followed days of calm on the border and the Line of Control (LoC) between Indian and Pakistani forces.
The two sides have been exchanging heavy mortar and artillery fire for months after the September 18 killing of 19 Indian soldiers in an attack on a military base in the border town of Uri in Kashmir.
Following the Uri attack, the Indian Army destroyed at least seven terror launch pads and killed an unknown number of terrorists and their sympathisers across the LoC in Pakistani Kashmir.
Since then, militants have attacked security forces in at least a dozen strikes in Jammu and Kashmir.
