Indicating a bloody summer ahead, heavily-armed militants last night decimated an SPO post at village Ind, killing 12 people — including nine policemen and a woman — in Gool tehsil of Udhampur district. The biggest ever attack in the area was sixth in a series in the Jammu region during the past one week. It was carried out jointly by four militant outfits — Hizbul Mujahideen, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Al Badr and Harkat-ul-Jehadi-e-Islami. Seven people were injured and six — including four policemen — taken hostage by the militants in the incident. They also torched six houses and a hospital building before escaping with a huge quantity of arms and ammunition from the post. This included 20 SLRs, one LMG, six AK-47 rifles, five Insas rifles, one mortar and three pouches containing mortar bombs. With the US preoccupied in Iraq and wooing Pakistan for support in UN, there has been a spurt in militant violence though a change in strategy is visible. Instead of the Valley, their target is now Jammu region due to many reasons. After the so-called disbanding of the Special Operations Group by the PDP-led coalition government, the militants have been left without a plank, pointed out a senior police officer. In the Jammu region, they can not only find soft targets but also engineer a communal divide. While almost all major towns in the Jammu region are predominantly inhabited by Hindus, Muslims are in a majority in most of the rural areas. After killing Hindus by setting off IED explosions and torching their abandoned houses in Rajouri district, they had planned an attack on the Muharrum procession in the border township of Poonch on Friday. However, one of the fidayeen, dressed in Army uniform, jumped the gun and opened fire on a police party outside a hotel just five minutes before the procession was scheduled to pass. That saved the day. In the latest incident, militants attacked the SPO post with mortars from all directions at 11.30 pm, catching the policemen off-guard. The building was razed during the attack which continued till early hours of this morning. Later, they went to nearby houses and opened fire on families whose members were SPOs or members of the village defence committee. Reinforcements could not reach the policemen on time as the nearest BSF post in the area is at Sangaldan, from where it takes at least four hours of trekking through mountainous terrain to reach Ind. And, according to sources, when a BSF party did leave Sangaldan for Ind, it was engaged by a group of militants en route. This delayed their mission. Ten of the deceased have been identified as Sher Singh, Showkat Ali, Shadi Lal, Angrez Singh, Khursheed Ali, Mohammad Iqbal, Bittu Ram and Mohammad Farid (all policemen and SPOs) besides civilians Shabir Ahmed and Altaf. The two whose identity could not be established included a woman. Those abducted by militants include Head Constable Nissar Ahmed, Constable Manzoor Ahmed, Jan Mohammad and Sher Mohammad (both SPOs), besides civilians Abdullah Bhat and Ghulam Mohammad. Senior police and paramilitary forces officials rushed to the spot this morning. Massive combing operations have been launched in the area but so far there have been no reports of either the militants or the hostages.
