ANANTNAG, DEC 5: Just when Kashmir had pinned its hopes on some peace after the ceasefire was declared, the Lashkar-e-Toiba sent a violent reminder in the form of a suicide squad yesterday. There is tension all around again. Security forces have their fingers on the trigger of their weapons, waiting for the next attack. There was some hope though: the neighbouring villages had been untouched.Today, however, the militants were back. They made an attempt to sneak into an Army camp, this time at Lolab in Kupwara district. They failed, and one of the militants was killed. Another attack came at Padgampora in Pulwama, where an Indian Air Force Gypsy was hit by a landmine. Miraculously, no one was hurt. But militants did kill two villagers, including a housewife.The operation following yesterday's incident, however, ended only today. Two Lashkar-e-Toiba militants had sneaked into the Central Reserve PoliceForce (CRPF) camp here yesterday at 4.30 pm, wreaking havoc in their wake. After nearly 24 hours, when the last militant was killed and the joint team of Army, police, Border Security Force, CRPF and counter-insurgentIkhwans (surrendered militants) re-occupied the camp, six CRPF jawans were dead and nine others,including an Armyman, injured.``We were up all night, though my men were not part of the assault party,''said Sonaullah Nayak, the Station House Officer of the Anantnag PoliceStation. The Two Lashkar militants, armed with Kalashnikov rifles and grenades, had snatched a Maruti car from a local villager a few miles away from here and then driven straight to the camp, which is housed in the Heevan Cinema building. ``The main entrance is a strong iron gate, which remains locked round the clock but the militants followed our vehicles. The gate was opened for our vehicles and the Maruti just zoomed in,'' a CRPF jawan at the camp said. ``In a fraction of a second, they jumped out of thecar and started firing indiscriminately. Their first target was the sentry.Then they went into the main building,'' he recalled.In the first few minutes of the shootout, one of the two militants wasseriously injured. Sources said Deputy Commandant Bhipul Singh washoled up along with his wife and son inside a room. A police officer, whodid not wish to be identified, said the security forces had to stop theiroperations to avoid further casualties late yesterday evening. ``One of the militants died yesterday but the other one had taken an LMG after killing aCRPF man, and kept up the firing from the building. There was so much fire that many thought more than two militants had sneaked in,'' he added.At 12.30 pm today, the Ikhwans were called to help troops in flushing out the militants. Around 10 Ikhwans armed with Kalashnikovs tried to sneak in but a burst of fire from the militant holed up inside stopped them temporarily. The militant was finally shot dead at 2.30 pm today. ``His right arm had been chopped off after being repeatedly shot. But he had still been firing on the advancing troops,'' a policeman, who was part of the final assault said.
