CRPF jawan killed as terrorists storm Kathua police station

Kathua

A CRPF jawan was killed as a group of fidayeen stormed into Rajbagh police station in Kathua district on Friday morning.

The terror attack, which is the third in Kathua district in the last one-and-a-half years, came around 6.20 am. The militants, three to four in number, gunned down the sentry at the main gate before entering the station premises, Kathua Deputy Commissioner Shahid Iqbal Choudhary said.

The militants were still inside the police station during the filing of this report. Fierce fighting was in progress, sources said, adding that it was unsure if they were holding any hostages inside. The campus also houses the residential quarters of the police personnel.

Significantly, the attack came a fortnight after India sent its foreign secretary to Islamabad for hold talks with his Pakistan counterpart and two days after BSF and Rangers held a flag meeting along the international border in R S Pura sector. The flag meeting was held following request from Pakistan Rangers five months after heavy shelling by the latter on civilian areas on the Indian side.

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Last March terrorists wearing Army uniform had opened fire on a vehicle killing a person and injuring three others at Tarnah nullah bridge in Dayalachak area on the Jammu-Pathankote national highway in Kathua district. The attack had come days after BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi addressed a rally in Hiranagar lashing out at Pakistan for terror activities on Indian soil.

Apart from this, three heavily armed terrorists also had attacked Hiranagar police station in Kathua district and later stormed an Army camp in Samba killing ten people including some policemen and a senior Army official on September 26, 2013.

Source:: Indian Express