M A I N   N E W S

Security vehicles blown up, 11 dead

SRINAGAR, Feb 18 (PTI) — Ten security personnel and a civilian were killed and seven securitymen critically wounded as militants set off a powerful landmine explosion in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir today.Two vehicles carrying jawans of the CRPF and the Special Operation Group (SOG) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police were blown up in the explosion on the Tral-Kahleel road, 40 km from here, at 3.45 p.m. an official spokesman said.

The vehicles carrying the jawans were destroyed in the explosion, killing 10 persons — five CRPF personnel, four SOG jawans and a civilian, who was accompanying the joint parties — on the spot, the spokesman said. One more CRPF jawan succumbed to his injuries in hospital.

He said the landmine was detonated when the jawans were returning after conducting an operation in the area.

He said seven jawans — five from the CRPF and three from the SOG — were critically wounded.

No militant outfit has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.

Militants set off an improvised explosive device when a BSF vehicle passed over it, damaging the vehicle and wounding four of its occupants, a BSF spokesman said.

A police spokesman said a major tragedy was averted when a police party detected and defused a powerful IED planted by militants at Shopian in Pulwama district.

The IED was targeted at a security patrol in the area.

Today’s explosions come within 30 hours of militants blowing up the vehicle of the self-styled supreme commander of Ikhwan, Fayaz Ahmad, which killed Fayaz and his associate Mohammad Shafi in Baramulla district yesterday.

Another landmine blast damaged an Army vehicle at Path-Bambloora in Ganderbal area on the outskirts of Srinagar, wounding four soldiers yesterday.

A security guard was killed when militants attacked the ancestral house of the late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah on the outskirts of Srinagar today.

Militants lobbed a grenade and then opened fire on the house at Soura, the spokesman said.

Police guards posted at the house returned the fire and in the shootout, security personnel Abdul Aziz of the Jammu and Kashmir Police was killed.

In another incident, Chairman of the People’s Patriotic Front, Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, alias Azad Nabi, escaped unhurt in an attack on his house at Shelipora in Anantnag district.

The attack on the counter-insurgent, who unsuccessfully contested the last parliamentary elections, was repulsed by the police after an hour-long shootout, the spokesman said.

Central team reviews situation

JAMMU, Feb 18 (PTI) —The law and order situation in Jammu and Kashmir was reviewed today by a special central team headed by Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande at a high-level meeting with Governor G C Saxena.

The team, including Special Secretary (Internal Security) in the Home Ministry T R Kakkar and crpf Director-General m n Sabharwal, discussed measures to check growing militant activities in Jammu and its adjoining areas, highly placed official sources said here.

The meeting expressed concern at security lapses in recent blasts in Jammu and escalation of violence in the region, and asked the security forces and the police to take effective measures to ensure that such lapses did not recur.

The team also held detailed discussions with Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and senior officers of the state government, including Director-General of Police Gurbachan Jagat.

The team’s visit came in the wake of two powerful blasts in the past one week in Jammu city and the Sapwal area of Samba in which 12 persons were killed.