Srinagar DPS encounter ends, two militants killed

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 25

Two suspected fidayeen were killed and two elite para-commandos of the Army injured in a gunfight on a school premises on the outskirts of Srinagar, officials said today.

J&K Police chief SP Vaid said, “The two slain militants have been identified as Abu Tala and Abu Harara, both Pakistan nationals.”

The gunfight erupted around midnight while the forces were combing Delhi Public School (DPS) premises to trace militants who had attacked a CRPF patrol at Pantha Chowk on Saturday evening, killing an officer and injuring two more.

After the attack, the militants entered one of the multi-storey DPS buildings. 

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The school was closed then, but 30 persons, including some staff members, were present. “All of them were taken out safely,” school chairman Vijay Dhar said.

The forces later used drones to trace the location of the militants, sources said. Army’s special forces were called in. The government imposed restrictions around the gunfight site. 

“We have neutralised both terrorists,” said Ravideep Singh Sahi, Inspector General, CRPF,  Srinagar. “While one terrorist was killed in the afternoon on the fourth floor, the second was killed at 6 pm on the fifth storey,” he said.

“The building has at least 400 rooms and the militants kept shifting from one room to another. So, it took time to carry out room-to-room intervention,” the IGP said. Sahi said initially they thought the Saturday’s ambush was a hit-and-run attack.

30 school staff members evacuated

Militants had entered Delhi Public School after they attacked a CRPF patrol at Pantha Chowk on Saturday evening, killing an officer and injuring two others

All 30 persons, who were present in the school at that time, were evacuated safely and then the forces zeroed in on the school block in which militants were hiding

One terrorist was killed in the afternoon on the fourth floor, the second one was killed around 6 pm on the fifth floor