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Militants kill 2 soldiers in ambush in Pattan

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Three persons, including two army soldiers, were killed and ten others wounded and scores of shops and homes burnt down wen a fierce gun battle broke out between security forces and militants at Pattan on the Srinagar Baramulla National Highway.

A senior police officer told rediff.com that late yesterday, militants ambushed an army patrol in the main market of Pattan, killing two soldiers. The militants, he said, used assault rifles to attack the soldiers in the town.

The troops then returned fire and the gun battle continued for an hour. Fresh reinforcements were immediately rushed to the spot from nearby areas and the town was sealed off. It was during the gun battle that a blaze began in the main market. However, fire tenders which rushed to the spot had to retreat in view of the heavy firing. Firemen tried their best to enter the town, but had to withdraw after six of them received serious injuries in the fighting and had to be rushed to hospital.

Apart from these, four civilians also received injuries in the gun battle. One boy, identified by the police as Wasim, died due to suffocation. The fire tenders finally moved into the town after the intervention of senior police officers. But by the time they could begin their fire-fighting operations the conflagration had spread to adjoining shops and homes in the Pattan market.

Angry locals then came out on the streets in large numbers, shouting slogans. They alleged that the devastating fire was started by the security forces themselves. Senior district officials had a difficult time in persuading the agitated people to return to their homes.

In a handout this evening, a defence spokesman said two army soldiers were killed in the ambush by the militants. He said that the blaze was sparked off by a short circuit on an electric pole during the firing. He claimed that the troops sanitised the market place for the firemen to start the operation. The loss in the fire, he said, was still being assessed.

However, after visiting the spot this evening a police officer said the militants had managed to escape despite conducting combing operations.

Security has been further mounted in Pattan following the incident. The town had witnessed attacks by militants on the security forces in the past as well.

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