New Delhi:
Heavily armed militants launched a pre-dawn suicide attack on a CRPF camp in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Sunday, killing five personnel including an officer of the force and injuring three others.
CRPF officials said two militants holed up in a building block in the camp were killed in the subsequent operation to neutralise the ultras.
"Two heavily armed militants stormed the camp at about 2 am. They were armed with under-barrel grenade launchers and automatic weapons. They were challenged by camp sentries," CRPF officials said.
The killed CRPF prsonnels have been identified as Sharief-ud-din Ganaie, Kuldip Roy, Taufail Ahmed, Rajendra Nain and Pradeep Kumar Panda.
CRPF Public Relations Officer (PRO) Rajesh Yadav told PTI that the militants fired indiscriminately injuring three CRPF personnel.
The injured personnel later succumbed to injuries. One of the injured personnel was identified as Saifuddin, a resident of Nowgam, officials said.
Director General of Police S P Vaid said 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.
The Additional DG of CRPF said, "We had inputs that such an attack could take place and our troops were ready. Till now, 2 terrorists killed, operation still underway; We will conclude the operation soon."
"There was an input from the last two-three days.They (militants) were trying.They probably could not get a place and time earlier.So, they struck last night, Vaid told reporters.
The gunned down terrorists have been identififed as Manzoor Ahmad Baba of Pulwama and Fardeen Ahmad Khanday of Tral.
The CRPF camp also serves as training centre for troops inducted for counter-militancy operations in Kashmir Valley.
A Jammu and Kashmir Police team is also co-located with CRPF in this camp.
