Hostage crisis over in Jammu, 2 terrorists killed

BREACH OF TRUST: Jammu and Kashmir policemen are seen enaged in a gunfire exchange with terrorists on Sunday.

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New Delhi: Four civilians, including a photojournalist and a jawan, were killed and 12 others injured during a 12-hour-long gun battle between a team of Border Security Force (BSF) and terrorists along the International Border in Jammu's Samba district on Sunday.

The heavy fire exchange ended just before dusk with the army and BSF gunning down two terrorists.

A CNN-IBN car, too, was hit by grenade shrapnel.

In the first major terror-related activity in Jammu plains since 2002, the two terrorists holed up inside a house after infiltrating into the country from Pakistan, officials said.

According to the police, terrorists entered a house in Kali Mandi in Samba, 45 km from Jammu, and opened fire, killing the two occupants, Hoshiar Singh and his wife Shashi Bala, and injuring their daughter Bindu and another relative.

Security personnel rushed towards the area and engaged the terrorists in a gun battle after they were alerted by a group of villagers.

The terrorists then hid in a house belonging to Suresh Singh. A woman and two children were trapped inside the house. In the afternoon, the terrorists killed the woman and threw her body out of the house.

“The terrorists may have belonged to Lashkar-e-Toiba. The joint forces have done a good job. We had successful operation. All hostages have been rescued and both militant killed,” BSF DIG J P Sangwan said.

The terrorists then holed up in another house in the vicinity, taking four hostages — all of them women or children — eyewitness said.

The BSF, which guards the 187-km international border, had claimed that it had foiled the infiltration bid on Thursday night and that over a dozen terrorists had retreated to Pakistan after firing 1,000 rounds from their weapons.

But Army chief General Deepak Kapoor says infiltration has not increased in the recent past.

"If we compare the infiltration, it's similar to that of 2006. Three hundred and forty three people in 2006 whereas 311 in 2007. Due to the election, we fear of disturbance and we want everything to be peaceful this year," General Kapoor says.

Security forces say that with the state going to elections later this year and even the Amarnath Yatra scheduled to start next month, incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir could increase.

Thousands of Hindus travel to Jammu via Samba on their onward journey to Kashmir to visit the Himalayan cave shrine of Amarnath at this time of the year. There have been attempts in the past to target devotees.

(With agency inputs)