Early on Saturday morning, militants believed to be from Jaish-e-Mohammad attacked the Indian army’s Sunjuwan Military Station near Jammu in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. According to an army spokesman quoted by Indian media earlier today, three militants were killed in the encounter. Five army personnel and one civilian also lost their lives and 10 others, including a pregnant woman, were injured in the operation that lasted over 36 hours. The area has now been sanitised by setting ablaze the station’s family quarters that were vacated after the militants entered the residential area. After the 2016 suicide attack on an army camp in Uri, also in Jammu and Kashmir, this is the most serious one.
A group of militants dressed in army combat uniform had forced their way into the Sunjuwan Military Station at the crack of dawn on February 9 after a brief exchange of fire with the sentry on duty at the post. Lt Col Devendra Anand, Public Relations Officer of the army in Jammu told the Indian media that five army personnel and a civilian dependent lost their lives to the attack launched by the militants who forced their way into the 36 Brigade of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry. Col Anand added that armed to the teeth with AK-56 rifles, under barrel grenade launchers and grenades, the militants barged into the Junior Commissioned Officers’ residential family quarters. The dead army personnel have been identified as Subedar Madal Lal Chaudhary, Subedar Mohammad Ashraf Mir, Havildar Habib Ullah Quraishi, Naik Manzoor Ahmed and Lance Naik Mohammad Iqbal. The dead civilian dependant was Ghulam Mohadin Sheikh, the father of Lance Naik Iqbal. According to media reports, in order to protect his family, Subedar Chaudhary blocked the militants from entering his quarters. He had guests at his place who were there to go shopping for a wedding in the family. It was because of his bravado that more lives were prevented from being lost, reported an army statement.
Ten people, including six women and children have been injured. A pregnant woman, who sustained injuries, was later taken to hospital for an emergency operation where she delivered a baby. Both mother and child are reported to be in a stable condition. A young boy of 14 years who was shot in the head, however, said to be critical in hospital. Amongst the injured is Major Avijit Singh. Army chief Gen Bipin Rawat arrived in Jammu to review the operation and a team of the National Investigation Agency is probing the attack. Indian media reported that investigation based on the recoveries made from the bodies of the neutralised terrorists confirmed that they belonged to the proscribed militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad. Para commandos from the army’s Northern Command headquarters based in nearby Udhampur were flown in to flush out the militants while aerial support and surveillance were provided by the air force.
It is also being reported that there were intelligence reports warning of a possible strike on the army or other security establishment by Jaish-e-Mohammad around February 9 and 11, which are the dates on which Kashmiri separatists Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat were hanged to death by the Government of India, respectively. Guru was executed in 2013 for masterminding the 2001 attack on Parliament in New Delhi. Bhat was convicted in the 1971 hijacking of an Indian aeroplane to Lahore. Kashmir’s Hurriyat Conference had already called for a bandh on February 11 to mark these dates.
Referring to an unnamed army officer, the Indian media reported that this attack was being seen as a “major lapse on the part of the police that the militants managed to reach Sunjuwan”, after crossing the Punjab border with the help of a local guide.
