Militants seize vacant hostel in Valley

TT, Srinagar, Oct. 10: An unspecified number of militants rowed a shikara across Jhelum early today to occupy a sprawling compound on Srinagar's outskirts, from where they were engaged in a gun battle with security forces till late tonight.

The militants took over the seven-storey hostel of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute (EDI) at Pampore, 14km from Srinagar, shortly after dawn in a repeat of a similar incident in the same compound in February.

Hundreds of army, CRPF and police jawans threw a cordon around the building and engaged the militants in a gunfight. One soldier was injured.

"Militants have fired not more than a few dozen shots as their aim seems to be to prolong the gunfight. It is a sturdy building and they can survive there for days. That seems why they occupied it a second time," a source said.

In February, when another of the three buildings in the compound was seized, the gunfight had lasted three days and left three soldiers - two captains and a lance naik - dead. Then, the forces had to launch room intervention - occupying and securing room after room - to flush them out.

Today, security forces bombarded the hostel building, which has no less than 60 rooms, with grenades and bullets to neutralise the militants.

Sources said two to three militants - or more - had crossed the Jhelum by a shikara around 6am and reached the EDI complex. The river flows behind the compound and the national highway runs in front of it.

The militants initially torched a part of a structure in the compound to lure the security forces. But fire tenders reached the spot first. The militants fired some shots to scare the firemen away.

Hundreds of security personnel then cordoned off the compound but were targeting the building from a distance. Rooms caught fire several times during the day because of the explosives fired by the forces.

Defence spokesperson, Srinagar, Colonel Rajesh Kalia said one soldier was injured. "The operation is on.... We don't know how long will it last," he said.

EDI director Mohammad Ismael Parrey, a cook and two attendants were in the hostel when the gunfight started. They moved out safely. The complex is shut because of the ongoing unrest in the Valley.

"Our main building suffered extensive damage during the February incident and after that we were operating from the first three floors of the hostel. It seems the hostel too has been badly damaged this time," Parrey said.