NEW DELHI, 2 January 2007 — Eight people, including seven Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and a civilian were killed yesterday when heavily armed militants attacked a CRPF camp in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh early yesterday.
The gunmen got into the CRPF Group Center located on the outskirts of Rampur, some 300 km from Lucknow, around 3 a.m. and opened fire with AK-47 rifles, Inspector General of Police Gurbachan Lal said.
“Seven soldiers and one civilian — a rickshaw puller — were killed at Rampur,” state Home Secretary J.N. Chamber said.
Officials termed the incident a “serious security lapse.” “This is the biggest armory of the state. It supplies arms and ammunitions to the whole state,” Chamber said.
Four militants shot dead a guard at a gate to the camp and made their way inside, according to soldiers at the camp. Five people were also injured in the battle inside the camp, the Press Trust of India news agency said. Police said they were hunting for the attackers and believed that two of them were injured, PTI added.
The NDTV news channel quoted Home Ministry sources as saying they suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba, a hard-line militant group, was behind the incident.
India’s Intelligence Bureau had told the state the camp was on a list of likely terror targets, officials said yesterday.
“The intelligence information is given to all the states and we also had it,” state Chief Minister Mayawati told reporters.
“Our officers gave all this information to the CRPF so it was their responsibility to tighten their security,” she said.
Mayawati announced a compensation of Rs.100,000 to the families of each of the dead men. CRPF officials said in New Delhi that three of the attackers escaped but the fourth accomplice was still believed to be inside the camp premises.
Special Task Force (STF) commandos rushed from Lucknow to Rampur after the attack. CRPF and police personnel fanned out in the area to nab the militants. The police have cordoned off the camp.
“We will not allow them to get away with this. I am confident my boys will track down the culprits who are obviously associated with some Islamic militant group,” Chamber said.
In New Delhi, Home Minister Shivraj Patil condemned the killings and said the central government had sought details “about the facts and circumstances of the incident”.
He said that concerned authorities had been asked to take immediate and effective measures to identity and trace the culprits and bring them to book.
Soon after the attack in Rampur yesterday, the paramilitary force sounded an alert across all its bases in the country against similar terror strikes.
“We have sounded an alert at our bases across the country after the terror attack on one of our bases in Uttar Pradesh,” said A.P. Meshwari, Inspector General (Operations) of the CRPF.
Speaking to reporters, Meshwari denied reports that the CRPF did not pay “due attention” to an intelligence alert on a possible terror attack.
“It’s is not that we are not on alert. It is due to our alertness that the terrorists could not penetrate the second line of defense and enter the Group Center in Rampur,” he said. He said the militants managed to flee taking advantage of predawn darkness.
