At least six security personnel and two militants were killed after a group of militants attacked a police camp in Jammu and Kashmir yesterday.
Heavily-armed rebels stormed the camp in the Pulwama district, where hundreds of personnel from the state police and paramilitary are stationed.
The militants opened indiscriminate gunfire and lobbed grenades upon entering the complex.
The attack on the police complex is the biggest on a state security facility since September 18 last year, when armed militants broke into an army camp near the de facto border, called the Line of Control (LoC), in Uri, killing 18 army personnel.
The six security men killed included two policemen, two Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) troopers and two Special Police Officers (SPOs) of the state police.
“Two militants were also killed in the gunbattle that began early yesterday,” a police official said on condition of anonymity.
“Three more security personnel were injured,” he said.
The gunbattle was continuing as up to two militants were still holed up in a building inside the complex.
All the families in the compound were evacuated and the militants had taken no hostages, police said in a statement.
Authorities cut off mobile Internet services in the district to prevent residents from organising anti-India protests as a tactic to help the militants escape.
In recent months, residents, sometimes entire villages, have increasingly hit the streets and thrown stones at soldiers when rebels are trapped in military cordons to help them escape.
Security forces fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators after sporadic protests broke out close to the police facility, an officer said on condition of anonymity.