Daily Times

SRINAGAR: The death toll from a militant attack on an army base in the Indian-occupied Kashmir climbed to 10, police said, as a seige at the compound stretched into a second day.

A firefight erupted Saturday when an unknown number of heavily-armed attackers stormed the base in Jammu, the second-largest city in the Himalayan region.

Authorities initially said four people were killed in the brazen pre-dawn strike, but updated the death toll as elite Indian commandos flanked by armoured vehicles searched the sprawling compound. “Five soldiers, one civilian and four fighters have been killed so far,” police chief Shesh Paul Vaid said.

Nine others, including women and children, were injured in the attack that the Indian army blamed on Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM).

Local broadcasters showed tanks rolling into the Sunjawan army camp late Saturday and a helicopter hovering overhead as the attack unfolded.

Police said the assault began around 4:55 am on Saturday when guards came under a hail of bullets near the base’s boundary wall. The intruders took positions inside a residential complex meant for soldiers’ families as the army launched a counter-offensive to drive them out.

It is still unclear whether any gunmen remain on the compound.

Hindu-majority Jammu, located in the foothills of the mountainous region, is relatively peaceful but has repeatedly seen assaults on military bases.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in an armed fight that erupted in 1989 by people demanding that Kashmir be merged with Pakistan.

Saturday’s attack comes 18 years after a similar attack on the base in 2003 that killed 12 soldiers.

Meanwhile, three innocent citizens, including women, were injured when Indian army initiated unprovoked firing on Sunday along the Line of Control (LoC) in Battal, Hot Spring and Khuiratta sectors.

According to a statement issued by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Indian army targeted civilian population. The injured women are 24-year-old Saba Azad and 36-year-old Nagina Aqsad.

Pakistan army troops responded effectively to the Indian ceasefire violations. Substantial damage was caused to the Indian posts, according to ISPR.

Published in Daily Times, February 12^th 2018.