Five CRPF jawans martyred in Pulwama terror attack; Jaish-e-Mohammad claims responsibility

SRINAGAR: Five Central Reserve Police Force jawans were killed when heavily armed terrorists on Sunday launched a pre-dawn attack on a CRPF camp in Pulwama district of south Kashmir.

CRPF spokesperson Rajesh Yadav confirmed that five men were killed in the terrorist attack. Yadav said the bodies of two terrorists have been recovered while one more was believed to be killed.

The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the daring attack on the 185 Battalion of the CRPF, IANS reported.

Heavily armed terrorists stormed the CRPF camp at about 2 am. They were armed with under- barrel grenade launchers and automatic weapons. They were challenged by camp sentries.

Director General of Police SP Vaid said security forces had inputs about an impending militant strike in the Kashmir Valley for the past three days.

Terming the attack as "unfortunate", Vaid said as long as Pakistan keeps sending militants, security forces and people of Kashmir will continue to go through this.

A total of 206 militants were killed by security forces in Jammu amd Kashmir and 75 others persuaded to shun violence in 2017, the state police chief further said.

"This year, while we killed 206 militants, we brought 75 youth back who had either joined or were about to join the militancy. Apart from this seven youth, who had picked up arms, were brought back due to the support their families showed to us," he said.

J&K CM, Dy CM condemn attack

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh condemned the terror attack.

Terming the attack as "dastardly", the chief minister said violence had taken a heavy toll in the state in terms of death and destruction, tearing apart of the social fabric, inflicting massive economic, academic and social losses besides the irreparable loss of human lives.

CRPF camp attack a reminder of how bad things are: Omar

Opposition National Conference (NC) expressed grief and sorrow over the loss of lives and called it a reminder of how bad things were in the Valley.

"As the year draws to a close we get a terrible reminder of how bad things are in the valley. My condolences to the families of the CRPF personnel killed in the attack," NC working president Omar Abdullah wrote in a Twitter post.

Congress slams Modi government

The Congress slammed the government over the terror attack, saying it was a sign of failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's foreign policy.

Party spokesperson Sushmita Dev said that such recurring attacks send a message that anti-national forces do not fear India.

(With agencies inputs)