SRINAGAR: Militants made an abortive attempt to blow up army headquarters in frontier Kupwara district in Jammu and Kashmir, where 12 people, including four militants were killed in the continued violence since last Sunday, Even as the security forces arrested 11 militants along with arms and ammunition and two others laid down their arms, unidentified militants torched three school buildings and a hut of Public Health Engineering (PHE) department in the Valley, according to an official spokesman. He said that the militants fired a solar rocket on the army headquarters in the border district of Kupwara. However, the rocket, which exploded midair, caused no casualty; Independent reports ranching from the district town, however, said that the militants fired two rockets on the army based around 1410 hours. While one rocket failed to hit the target, the ‘second exploded inside the army base, causing serious injuries to seven jawans.
Further details of the incident are awaited, the spokesman said.
The spokesman said that the body of one Sultan Lone was fished out by the police from Nallah Kamil in Kupwara.
Militants also set afire Government Middle School, housed in Auqaf buildings, Batagund Verinag in Anantnag district, the spokesman said, adding that two residential houses were gutted in suspicious circumstances at Gankhan Bohrikadal and GathporaLal Bazar in Srinagar last week. Militants shot dead Mohammad Maqbool Bhat at Zudhbagh Litter in Pulwama He said that the militants in Parrey pora in Badgam district mercilessly beat one Ghulam Ahmad Bhat, who later died in a hospital. An explosion caused damage to the house of one Abdul Rahim Dar at Qaisermulla Chadoora in the same district. The spokesman said. He said that two people’s sustained injuries in an exchange of fire between militants and the raiding party of the local police and security forces near Shahdara in the border district of Rajouri last week, the injured were shifted to the hospital, where one later expired. Militants managed their escape after the firing incident, he said. Security forces arrested two militants and recovered a universal machine gun, a rocket and 10 kilograms of explosives during searches in Habbakadal, Vicarage, and Buchpora in Srinagar. A defence ministry spokesman said that two Pakistan trained militants, one each at Mandyal in Baramulla and Gagloosa in Pulwama district, were killed in encounters.
Article extracted from this publication >>May 1, 1996
