M A I N   N E W S

4 killed in attack on Army camp
Militants wipe out family of five
Tribune News Service and agencies

Srinagar, April 14
Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) militants attacked an Army camp, killing four soldiers, including a Captain, and wounding six in the frontier district of Kupwara last night, a defence spokesman said here today.

Two Lashkar militants, armed with sophisticated weapons, attacked the Army installation, housing personnel of the elite Rashtriya Rifles, at Sogamk, 95 km from here, triggering an intense gunbattle lasting over an hour, the spokesman said.

The militants fired rockets at the camp and followed this up with indiscriminate firing, killing the guard manning the gate, he said.

The troops retaliated and in the resultant gunbattle, Capt Mukesh Rathore and two other soldiers were killed.

An LeT spokesman telephoned newspaper offices here, claiming its activists Abu Usman and Abu Baker Zarar carried out the suicide attack at the camp. At least three persons, including a BSF jawan, a “fidayeen” and a civilian, were killed when a group of three militants attacked a BSF post at Lal Chowk on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, in a gruesome incident, the militants wiped out a family of five members in Udhampur district of the Jammu region in a predawn attack today, an official spokesman said.

He said a group of unidentified militants forced their entry into the house of Ghulam Hassan at Sonawanmali of Udhampur in the wee hours today and fired indiscriminately on the inmates.

Hassan, his wife Shameema and their three children aged between two and five years died instantly.

Meanwhile, seven persons, including three militants, two members of a family and an NC leader, were killed and 14 wounded as the militants ambushed a police party and clashed with the security forces at six places in Jammu and Kashmir since yesterday, official sources said today.

Three militants, believed to be activists of LeT were killed in an encounter with the Army at Binner village in Baramula district of North Kashmir today, the sources said.

The militants fired on an Army patrol resulting in the encounter in which three jawans and two civilians were injured. In another attack, two members of a family were killed and two others, including a woman, injured in a shootout between the militants and the security forces at Waripora Payeen in Baramula district last night, they said.