Srinagar:
At least two heavily-armed terrorists attacked a Central Reserve Police Force or CRPF training centre in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama today, leaving four security personnel dead. Two terrorists have been killed. Officials have not ruled out the possibility of a third terrorist and are searching the training centre.
Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed has claimed responsibility for the attack, people familiar with the matter said.
The terrorists stormed the CRPF building and threw grenades and opened fire before breaching the perimeter of the training centre of the 185 Battalion of the CRPF in Pulwama, about 30 kilometres from Srinagar at 2 am on Sunday morning. A flush-out operation was soon launched to neutralise the terrorists holed up inside the CRPF building, the official said.
At least six CRPF jawans have been evacuated from the building, the official said. Security forces had an input about an impending terror strike in Kashmir valley for the past three days, Director General of Police SP Vaid said hours after the attack on the CRPF camp in Pulwama district, news agency PTI reported. "There was an input from the last two-three days. They (terrorists) were trying. They probably could not get a place and time earlier. So, they struck last night," Mr Vaid told reporters in Srinagar.
In a similar attack on the CRPF in August, eight security personnel lost their lives when terrorists targeted a district police complex in Pulwama. The three terrorists who launched the suicide attack were killed after an intense gunfight that went on for over 12 hours.
Two months later, three suicide attackers carrying a massive arsenal of guns and explosives broke into a Border Security Force (BSF) camp near the Srinagar airport before dawn and opened fire, killing one soldier.
All three terrorists were killed after nearly 10 hours of gunbattle. A unit of the Pakistan-based terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed that called itself the "Afzal Guru squad" claimed the attack.
(With inputs from PTI)
The terrorists threw grenades and opened fire, trying to breach the facility (Representational)
