TRAGIC: 7 JAWANS MARTYRED IN TERRORIST ATTACK

TRAGIC: 7 JAWANS MARTYRED IN TERRORIST ATTACK

Seven soldiers including two officers were martyred yesterday in a dawn-to-dusk suicide attack on an army camp in Nagrota, 18km from Jammu city, that triggered a "hostage-like situation".

Three of the attackers were killed but army sources said combing was still continuing.

Nagrota is 55km from the border by road, an officer said, wondering how the militants were undetected during the journey.

Militants have entered military bases and killed soldiers repeatedly this year, Uri and Nagrota being particularly galling because of claims of a "security audit" after the January Pathankot raid. The attacks continue even after the September 29 "surgical strikes" that BJP leaders say have "taught Pakistan a lesson".

The 5.30am swoop on the 166 Field Regiment artillery unit, stationed 3km from the headquarters of the army's largest corps, the 16 "White Knight", came on a day General Qamar Javed Bajwa replaced General Raheel Sharief as Pakistan's army chief.

The first to be killed were a major and three other soldiers. There was then a "hostage-like situation" after the raiders entered the officers' mess complex.

Twelve soldiers, two women and two children were rescued, with the army losing another major and two more soldiers in the operation.

The attack came on a day the government found itself embarrassed in Parliament over the Pathankot raid.

Junior home minister Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said in reply to a question that four militants had attacked the airbase; home minister Rajnath Singh had earlier said there were six. The government is likely to give a clarification tomorrow.

The military too has to explain to itself and to the public how such attacks are repeated despite a state of high alert.

The BSF claimed to have averted another carnage by killing three massively armed suicide attackers as they crossed the border in the neighbouring Samba sector. A deputy inspector-general and two constables were injured.

BSF inspector-general D.K. Upadhyaya said the militants wore suicide belts and carried 35 grenades, three AK47 rifles, five chained explosive devices, five bottles of highly inflammable nitroglycerin and plastic handcuffs (apparently to take hostages).

Upadhyaya said three BSF personnel were injured in the covering fire by the Pakistani army, and not in a booby trap explosion as some reports have said.

#RIP