Operation Derail Saarc: terror on Jammu tracks

Security personnel, who engaged the militants, managed to gun down two of them after exchanging fire for more than three hours. Search operations were underway when reports last came in.

‘‘We can see the bodies of two militants. A search is on to make sure no other man’s involved in the attack,’’ said DGP Gopal Sharma.

The attack, the second since August 2001, began around 6.40 pm, creating panic and disrupting rail traffic.

The Army was called in and armoured vehicles moved inside the railway station to pin down the militants who had positioned themselves on an overbridge between platforms 1 and 2.There was total confusion at the station where pilgrims to Vaishno Devi make a sizeable number. Senior Superintendent of Railway Police, H L Fotedar, said the militants were in combat fatigues and fired first at 6.40 pm from the overhead bridge. One of the militants was said to have strapped himself with explosives. There could have been many more casualties had it not been for the thin crowd on platform 2 when the attack began. The Pooja Express had moved out almost an hour earlier and the Delhi-bound Shalimar Express had not yet rolled in from the yard. As a result of the attack, rail traffic in the area was brought to a standstill. ‘‘All Jammu-bound trains have been stopped at diferent stations. No train will move out from Jammu until there’s security clearance,’’ said Jammu station superintendent Mulk Raj.

The incomming Tata Muri Express was stopped at Channi, about 2 km from Jammu railway station. Other trains — Shalimar Express, Jhelum Express and Hemkund Express — scheduled to leave Jammu after 6.30 pm had been suspended, he said. The Jaipur-bound Puja Express was the last to exit Jammu station — it left at 5.50 pm — before the militants struck.