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Srinagar, April 27
At least three Army men, including an officer, were killed in a militant attack on an Army base in frontier Kupwara district. A 70-year-old civilian was killed and three others received injuries near the army camp later, police said. The Army has not so far confirmed whether the security guards at the camp opened fire at the mob.
Two suspected fidayeen members stormed an Army base at Panzgam in Kupwara around 4.30 am and engaged troops in a fierce gunfight. Srinagar-based defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said three soldiers, including an officer, were killed in the gunfight.
Read: Civilian killed, 3 injured in firing near Kupwara attack site
“Terrorist attacked the Army garrison in Panzgam and two terrorists were killed. Three soldiers, including an officer, were martyred in the gunfight,” he said.
The dead included 26-year-old Captain Ayush Yadav from Kanpur, Subedar Bhoop Singh from Rajasthan and Naik B.V. Ramanna from Visakhapatnam.
The injured were flown to Srinagar for treatment, defence ministry sources said. Reports said two of the injured soldiers were in critical condition.
Army officials said the militants cut through the two-layered barbed wire fencing of the firing range of the camp, after which they lobbed hand grenades and fired indiscriminately.
According to the officials, Panzgam is the rear administrative area for over nine Army units in Kupwara and spread over an area of 240,000 square metres.
The camp is about 20 km from Kupwara and some 10 km from the LoC.
The attackers were engaged by the Quick Reaction Team (QRT) and the intense gunfight lasted for 7-10 minutes, the officials said.
At least three AK-47 assault rifles, nine magazines, 156 rounds of AK-47, one Chinese pistol, one pistol magazine, one UBGL and three grenades, three matrix sheets, two GPS, one smartphone and one radio set were recovered from the possession of the suicide attackers.
The Army spokesman said two terrorists were killed in the attack and a third managed to escape. An intense search was on to trace him.
The Army also launched a search operation to ascertain whether the militants had managed to sneak into the camp.
This is the first fidayeen attack this year in Kashmir.
