Jammu, December 30
In renewed spate of violence just four days before the SAARC summit in Pakistan, terrorists, blew up an Army vehicle with an IED, injuring 55 soldiers and three civilians at Lawapora on the Srinagar Baramula highway today.
The pro-Pakistan Hizb-ul Mujahideen has claimed responsibility. The vehicle was part of a convoy that was heading towards Chowkibal in Kupwara from the Badami Bagh cantonment in Srinagar. The IED exploded at about 10.30 am in a roadside shop as the convoy passed through.
The critically injured soldiers have been rushed to the Base Hospital at Badami Bagh. Most of them escaped with
minor injuries.
Meanwhile troops killed three Pakistani terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Toiba in the Chingus forests of Rajouri district early this morning. The terrorists who were shot in an encounter have been identified as Abu Asrar, Abu Talah and Abu Sigir. Besides other ammunition, three AK-47 rifles and four grenades were recovered from them.
The security forces have launched a massive hunt to trace the terrorists who lobbed a grenada near the general bus stand here last night, injuring nine persons.
During the course of surprise checking of vehicles in the city, the police arrested three persons from whom three revolvers were seized. During interrogation they were learnt to have told the police that they intended to kill a man.
In another encounter, the security forces killed two terrorists in the Thannamandi area of Rajouri district.
Patrolling has been stepped up on the Jammu-Pathankot highway following reports that the terrorists might strike there again. The troops have plugged river routes around the highway which were being used by the terrorists to infiltrate from Pakistan.
SRINAGAR:
Militants carried out a grenade attack on CRPF personnel guarding the residence of a senior Congress leader in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday. But there were no casualties, official sources said.
The militants tossed the grenade on the jawans when they came out of the house of Congress leader Mohammad Shafi Banday in Shopian town around 11 am, the sources said.
The grenade missed the target and exploded on the road without causing any casualty or damage.
Meanwhile, the militants shot at a village-level worker at Wafzan in the Bijbehara area of Anantnag district in south Kashmir. The worker, a resident of Sirhama, was travelling in a bus to Anantnag when the ultras intercepted the vehicle, dragged him out and pumped bullets in his body. He was shifted to a Srinagar hospital where his condition was stated to be serious.
