Pampore attack: ‘3 CRPF men who died fired 90 rounds’

The two militants who ambushed the bus fired as many as 200 rounds before they were killed. In retaliation, CRPF men in the bus and an armoured road opening party (ROP) vehicle of the force fired 491 rounds at the militants, killing them before they could cause more damage.

It was in this retaliation that Vir Singh fired 39 AK-47 rounds, Satish Chand fired 32 Insas rounds and Kailash Yadav fired 20 AK-47 rounds before dying, said CRPF DG K Durga Prasad.

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However, it was not their bullets that killed the militants. “Though they fired valiantly, they did not get the right angle to shoot at the militants, who were crouching too close to the bus and firing. The militants were finally engaged and killed by the armoured ROP, which had a clear sight at them,” a CRPF officer said.

As reported by The Indian Express on Monday, CRPF DG K Durga Prasad reiterated on Tuesday that there was no violation of standard operating procedure (SOP) by his men during the attack. He, however, said the SOPs were being revised in the aftermath of the attack.

CRPF officers pay tribute to Santosh Saw, who was killed in the Pampore attack, at Patna airport on Sunday. PTI photo

“There was no violation of SOPs, but we are looking at how such attacks can be prevented in future. We have decided to have some bulletproofing on our buses, as it is in the Army, so that casualties can be minimised. Also, though this convoy formation (which came under attack) had four vehicles, generally our convoys have 20 vehicles. We have decided to reduce them to three vehicles to ensure that gaps do not arise in the convoy,” Prasad said.

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The DG also said that there was a need for better picketing by state police and CRPF so that militants — in the present case they travelled in a car to reach the ambush spot — can be apprehended beforehand. “We have collectively failed here. We need to improve this,” said Prasad.

He also said that there was information that the two other suspects who had dropped the militants at the ambush spot were former Jammu and Kashmir militants. “This, however, is being verified by investigating agencies,” he said.

The DG said that though there were intelligence inputs about infiltration and attack on security forces, it was general in nature and no information about the place of attack was available. A senior CRPF officer said, “We don’t need intelligence inputs to know that infiltrating militants will target security forces. Such inputs come by the dozen every month,” he said.

The DG said that the families of the victims would get Rs 1 lakh from the welfare fund of the force, Rs 20 lakh from the risk fund and Rs 15 lakh ex-gratia apart from insurance money.