SRINAGAR, 23 October — Four suspected activists were killed yesterday when security forces foiled an attack on a high-security Indian Air Force base in Kashmir, an army spokesman said.
An air force employee and a civilian were also killed when the activists opened fire at the gates of the fortified base, a police spokesman said. Three personnel of the air force and Border Security Force (BSF) received injuries and were admitted in a hospital.
They drove up to the base in a van, stopped near the main entrance and opened fire, he said.
The border guards at the facility fired back and killed all the four occupants of the vehicle, said Brig. Jaspal Singh of the army headquarters in New Delhi. He said the attackers were armed with AK-47 assault rifles and hand grenades.
Singh said the privately-owned vehicle was being checked for explosives by experts at the airbase, located at Koel, 40 km south of Srinagar. Most VIPs, including Union ministers, use the base during their visits to Kashmir.
People living in villages close to the air base were dragged out of their houses and paraded in front of masked informers of the security agencies to see if they could be identified as activists. The Lashkar-e-Taiba frontline separatist group, said it carried out the attack. Spokesman Abu Osama said in Srinagar that the four Lashkar activists died after a three-hour firefight and added that they killed eight soldiers and air force personnel before being gunned down. Authorities, however, rejected the claims. Following the attempt to storm the base, security around Srinagar and Jammu airports was tightened, officials said.
In Delhi, officials said the attack could be a signal to rebel groups to step up attacks in Kashmir, which eased slightly after the Oct. 1 bomb blast at the state legislature in Srinagar.
Singh added that military inputs also indicated that Kashmiri activists were under orders from their commanders not to leave Kashmir for Afghanistan and join ranks with the Taleban militia, which is under US attack. “They (activists) have not left and on the contrary they have been asked to stay in Kashmir and raise the level of militancy,” Singh said.
Meanwhile, an army officer was killed and three injured when Pakistani forces opened fire on the Indian side of Kashmir, army sources said yesterday.
The government warned that it would take measures to beat back infiltration from Pakistan. “We will take all steps to prevent infiltration from the other side and we would step up activities depending on the scale and nature of such requirements,” External Affairs Ministry spokeswoman Nirupama Rao told reporters in Delhi.
Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said yesterday that Delhi would not hold peace talks with Islamabad until it stopped promoting “cross-border terrorism” in Kashmir.
