2016 Pampore attack continues: Terrorists target Valley’s success story again.... Terrorists Used Boat To Get To Pampore Building Near Srinagar: Sources

News Nation, 11 October 2016, New Delhi : Another day, another terrorists attack. A government building in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pampore area near Srinagar has been burning since Monday due to heavy exchange of fire between security forces and militants holed up inside the building.
The site of an earlier attack in February, this year, the building houses the J&K Entrepreneurship Development Institute. The institute is widely acknowledged as a Valley success story, drawing youths from different parts of the state to its programmes on skill development and capacity building.
Officials at EDI, who rank it as one of the most successful startups in the country, underline that it’s a centre par excellence with state-of-the-art regional centres across Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
Community organisers are present in all 22 districts of the state, enabling entrepreneurship and promoting development at the grassroots.Established in 1997 to develop and hone entrepreneurial skills, the EDI began functioning in 2004. Since then, more than 4,000 youths have trained at this institute — these include 1,800 youths from the Valley.
Unfortunately, the same success story has been target of terrorists more than one time. In fact, a month before the last encounter, 373 youths successfully completed their training at the institute — they were trained for three weeks from December 21, 2015 to January 13, 2016.
“Currently, two short-term business entrepreneurship courses help the unemployed youth understand opening of new businesses, and in getting government subsidies, processing loans and finances for the businesses,’’ an EDI senior instructor said an English daily. “Many who received training and loans are now running successful ventures across the state.’’
The EDI offers short-term programmes on handicraft, boutiques, shawl making, embroidery, training for pharmaceutical stockists, timber shops, and other courses.
On Monday, after the militants again occupied the EDI complex, former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah tweeted: “No wonder for the 2nd time this year they have attacked the institute. They want young Kashmiris to be subservient & bitter not self-reliant. All the EDI ever did was train young Kashmiri boys & girls to stand on their own feet & not seek government jobs. Militants don’t like that!”

Terrorists Used Boat To Get To Pampore Building Near Srinagar: Sources

NDTV: An encounter with a group of terrorists who are hiding inside a government institute in Pampore, 15 km from Srinagar, has stretched for over 13 hours. Explosions are being heard regularly from within and around the building, used to offer vocational training to young Kashmiris.

An army soldier was injured in the initial firing.

There are no hostages, sources said, because classes have been suspended for more than three months because of the unrest in the state that began with the killing of 22-year-old terrorist Burhan Wani.

The terrorists entered the building in saffron-rich Pampore at 6.30 am. The same institute had been targeted in a major attack in February. Five soldiers and a civilian were killed then; three terrorists were shot dead.

Units of the army's Special Forces, paramilitary soldiers and counterinsurgency police encircled the building in the sprawling compound this morning (the information being shared here is delayed so as not to jeopardize the security forces fighting the terrorists).

Sources said that terrorists who broke into the institute in the morning approached the campus on the outskirts of Srinagar through boats on the River Jhelum, which flows from Kashmir into Pakistan. According to the police, the terrorists then set sections of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) hostel building on fire to lure security forces. When they arrived, a major gunbattle broke out.

"We are confident of neutralising the terrorists as soon as possible," an army officer supervising the operation said.

Intel agencies have been warning of terror attacks in retaliation for the surgical strikes conducted by India across the Line of Control two weeks ago. Soldiers raided staging areas in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir where terrorists were waiting to cross the border and attack major cities, the army has said.

Since July, more than 80 civilians have been killed and thousands, including security personnel, have been injured in the worst protests against the government and security forces in recent years as mobs defy curfew to express their outrage over the killing of Wani, who has been eulogized as a martyr by Pakistan, which has incited and funded the unrest, according to Delhi.