Militants killed after attack on army camp

Agencies/SrinagarTwo militants opened fire at an army camp in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday but were killed in a gun battle, an army official said, with the second attack against security forces in two days piling pressure on the federal government after it swore to end the violence. Yesterday’s attack happened on the Pathankote-Jammu National Highway, around 20km from the police station in Kathua district where six people, including two militants, were killed in a militant attack on Friday. Kathua district is about 15km from the border with Pakistan, which India has long blamed for pushing militants into its part of the region. “The identity of the terrorists is being ascertained. It is not clear yet whether they infiltrated recently or had infiltrated earlier. We have recovered arms and ammunition from them,” Brigadier R S Rana of the Indian Army said. The two militants were killed after a gun battle that lasted for hours yesterday. “We went slowly to prevent any casualties,” Rana said. “We cannot rule out terrorists’ presence, that’s why we are still sanitising the area.” Security agencies believe that the two militants belonged to the same group that carried out the attack on Friday. The national highway has been closed and state school examinations in the district have been called off. The previous big attack in Kashmir was in December, when militants struck at an army camp in Uri, also near the border with Pakistan but further up the Kashmir Valley. “If (this) is indeed a terrorist strike, it marks a sharp departure from past attacks. Two attacks in two days in (the) same area of Jammu (is) very unusual,” Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah said in a Twitter post. Pakistan denies allegations that it supports the militants and instead calls for talks to resolve the dispute.The attack was the first to hit the state since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Peoples Democratic Party took power this month in a coalition government. Without naming Pakistan, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said such attempts show the neighbouring country’s “desperation”.A pilgrim sustained injuries during the attack at the army camp, but the army said he had hit his head in panic and there was no gunshot injury.The pilgrim, identified as Pappu, son of Mahadev Prasad of Ferozabad in Uttar Pradesh, was on his way to the Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Katra town of Reasi district, police said.He was taken to the Samba district hospital, where doctors referred him to the government medical college and hospital in Jammu.In New Delhi, Defence Minister Parrikar said that “when the morale of the opponents is down, they make such attempts to boost it.”Parrikar said intelligence has improved over time and this year, the security forces have killed 26 militants, with lesser number of casualties on the Indian side.“With such low loss, we inflict pain on the other side,” he said.“This is the best figure in many years. On the army side of the LoC (Line of Control), exchange of fires is also low,” he said.Several rebel groups have been fighting Indian forces since 1989. The fighting has left tens of thousands dead, mostly civilians. Armed encounters between rebels and government forces occur regularly, though violence in the region has substantially declined during the last decade.