ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Militants storm Rashtriya Rifles camp in Anantnag

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

Militants this evening stormed another heavily guarded army camp at Khanabal in Anantnag district of snow-clad south Kashmir where two persons, including a special police officer, were killed and three soldiers were wounded in an ambush earlier in the afternoon.

A senior police officer told rediff.com on telephone from Anantnag late this evening that three heavily armed militants attacked the sentry post of the Sector-1 Rashtriya Rifles with assault rifles and hurled several grenades before forcing their entry into the camp.

No injuries were reported, he said, but the three militants managed to enter a building inside the camp and holed up there.

Latest reports from Anantnag said one militant who tried to escape from the camp was shot dead by security forces. The other two remained holed up inside the building and continued firing on troops who laid siege to it.

The RR camp is located in the high security Khanabal area and is adjacent to the residences of the Anantnag district magistrate and the district police chief.

Police sources said the attack is a serious setback to the security forces after the recent series of daring attacks by militants on military and police camps in Srinagar and North Kashmir. "We were alert and ready and the militants who managed to enter the camp were immediately engaged by troops," said the police officer quoted earlier.

This is the first such attack by militants on a military or paramilitary camp in South Kashmir. The sources said troops are preparing to storm the building.

Earlier, a group of heavily armed militants this afternoon ambushed a passing bus carrying soldiers of the Rashtriya Rifles at Achabal in Anantnag. Police sources said two persons, one special police officer and the bus conductor, were killed while three armymen were injured and moved to hospital.

Security in the entire district has been tightened following today's incidents.

Tell us what you think of this report