SRINAGAR, 23 November 2002 — Six paramilitary troopers were killed and nine wounded when two militants attacked their camp in this summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir yesterday morning.
The two suicide attackers also died in the attack. Police said the militants, armed with grenades and assault rifles, struck at the Pamposh Hotel housing a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in the high security Regal Chowk. The militants made repeated attempts to storm the camp, firing heavily at the guards manning the pickets around the camp.
“One CRPF trooper died on the spot while 14 were wounded,” a police officer said. He said five critically wounded CRPF men later succumbed to their injuries in hospital. Others were still being treated in hospital, three in a serious condition. Paramilitary reinforcements were rushed to the spot.
One militants was gunned down at the entrance of the camp while the other managed to sneak inside. He was later shot dead by the troops.
This is the first major militant strike in the Kashmiri capital after the coalition government headed by Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed came to power earlier this month.
The attack came when people had just finished their ‘sahri’, or early morning meal during Ramadan.
Meanwhile, Kashmir Committee Chairman Ram Jethmalani yesterday said he was hopeful of re-engaging leading separatist leader Yasin Malik in talks to find a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem. Yasin, who was released from jail after Sayeed assumed office, has accused Jethmalani of adopting “double standards” during discussions with separatists in Jammu and Kashmir and questioned the feasibility of a dialogue with the committee.
“Now that he is out of the jail, he will breathe fresh air and change his mind,” Jethmalani said. Yasin, who is also a member of the executive council of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, has questioned Jethmalani’s credentials as “a true friend of the Kashmiri people”.
Taking strong exception to the Hurriyat’s decision to continue its dialogue with the Kashmir Committee, Yasin said: “Jethmalani is nothing but an agent of the Indian government who seeks the loyalties of the Kashmiri people for India.”
Immediately after his arrival here, Jethmalani called on separatist leader Shabir Shah at the latter’s Sant Nagar residence on the outskirts of Srinagar.
Shah, who heads the separatist Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), told reporters at the end of his meeting with the Kashmir Committee members that the deliberations were inconclusive. “We met today (Friday), and we will be meeting tomorrow also,” Shah said, adding that the two sides would issue a joint statement after the meeting today.
Other members of the committee accompanying Jethmalani are M.J. Akbar, Editor in Chief of The Asian Age, Dileep Padgaonkar, executive managing editor of The Times of India, and lawyer Ashok Kaul.
Jethmalani and his team later met Hurriyat leaders at the residence of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
