Nagrota attack leave 7 Indian Army men killed

The three militants were also shot dead in day-long gunfight.

Defence officials said ithe early hours of Tuesday a group of heavily armed militants disguised in police uniform targeted an army unit located three kilometres from the 16 Corps Headquarters at Nagrota.

They said the militants forced their entry into the Officers’ Mess complex by throwing grenades and firing at the sentries.

“In the initial counter action, one officer and three soldiers of the Army were ‘martyred’. The ‘terrorists’ entered two buildings which were occupied by Officers, families and men. This led to a hostage like situation,” said the Defence officials based in Udhampur Northern Command.

The situation was very quickly contained and thereafter, in a deliberate operation all were successfully rescued, which included 12 soldiers, two ladies and two children, they said.

“However, in this rescue attempt one more officer and two jawans sacrificed their lives,” the Defence officials, said adding that bodies of three militants have been recovered and operations are in progress to sanitise the complete area.

No militant outfit so far has claimed responsibility for the audacious attack that took place on a day when Lieutenant General Qamar Javed Bajwa, took charge of the Pakistan army, replacing General Raheel Sharif.

The security around all military installations has been increased all across the state including in the Kashmir Valley which saw worst militant strike on September 19 on an army camp at Uri, leaving 20 soldiers dead.

Meanwhile, Border Security Force (BSF) claimed that it neutralized three infiltrators who had fired at a BSF patrol and injured one trooper Sham Lal Aggarwal. However, Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Border Security Force (BSF) BS Kasana and six other forces’ personnel were injured after a blast at the site of an encounter in Ramgarh sector of Samba in Jammu on Tuesday.

Reports from BSF said the blast took place after forces were removing the body of one of the three militants killed in the gunfight from the site of the firefight (near zero line of International Border BOP Fatwal).

(Reporting by Saleem Qadri )