Twin 'fidayeen' attacks in Jammu, Army officer among 10 killed

All three terrorists have been killed

Dressed in army fatigues, terrorists stormed a police station and then an army camp in Jammu region killing 10 people including an army officer in twin 'fidayeen' attacks after they sneaked in from across the border early today, barely three days ahead of a meeting between Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan.

The three heavily armed terrorists, believed to be from banned Pakistan-based terror group LeT and who were holed up in the camp of the cavalry armoured unit at Samba for several hours after they barged into the Officers mess, have been killed during a fierce gunfight, Army officials said in Delhi.

The bodies of the three terrorists aged between 16 and 19 are in the custody of the Army, they said.

In the worst terror attack on a security establishment in Jammu region in 10 years, officials said six people including four policemen were killed in the 'fidayeen'(suicide) strike on the police station in Hiranagar in Kathua close to International Border(IB) by the terrorists while four army personnel including a Lieutenant Colonel died at Samba camp.

"As per preliminary information, the four terrorists came from across the border," Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde told reporters in Delhi. A police official said it was a case of "fresh infiltration" and the terrorists crossed the IB most probably in the wee hours of today.

Lt Col Bikramjeet Singh, the second-in-command of the unit stationed at the camp, was among the four slain Army personnel.

The unit's Commanding Officer (CO) Col A Uthaiah, who was among the three injured at the Army Camp, has been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit(ICU) at a hospital in Pathankot.

A lesser-known militant outfit 'Shohada Brigade' claimed responsibility for the attack.

"We carried out the attacks in Kathua and Samba in Jammu region," a person who identified himself as Sami-ul-Haq, the spokesperson of the outfit, told PTI on phone. He claimed they were locals.

J and K DGP Ashok Prasad said the terrorists had boarded an auto at gun point from Hariya Chuk graveyard in village Jhandi, barely one km from the IB and asked the driver Roshan Lal to take the vehicle to an Army camp at Hiranagar.

Unable to locate the camp, the terrorists stormed the police station at 6.45 AM hurling grenades where they killed a sentry at the gate and then an ASI Ratan Singh and a Special Police Officer. A constable, who was resting on the second floor of the police station, was also gunned down in the indiscriminate firing, Police said.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif are due to meeet in New York on September 29 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.