SUICIDE STRIKE

‘‘The car was asked to stop at the drop gate but they drove ahead. Within seconds, one of the militants jumped out while the other blew up the car,’’ a CRPF men guarding the nearby bunker said. ‘‘There was a huge cloud of fire and a deafening blast. The pieces of the car were flying all around,’’ he said. One militant threw a grenade into the security force bunker next to the entrance. ‘‘There was another blast and the bunker was destroyed’’ he said.

The two militants who were following the car tried to sneak inside the campus in the chaos. But a team of Border Security Force stationed there reacted quickly to foil the attempt. ‘‘One militant who was trying to sneak in was gunned down right at the entrance while his accomplice tried to escape,’’

Deputy Inspector general of BSF, Desh Raj said. ‘‘One of our boys, Prakash, followed the militant and tried to grab him. The militant was carrying a live grenade and he detonated it, killing himself and our boy.’’

A CRPF jawan guarding the entrance was also killed while three others were critically wounded in the attack. Two militants were wearing police uniform while the third was wearing salwar-kameez.

‘‘It was raining so there was not much rush. Otherwise, we would have had a lot of civilian casualty as well,’’ said Deputy Inspector general of Police, Kashmir range, Farooq Ahmad. ‘‘Then there were hardly any employees of the Radio station or visitors at the entrance because of the weekend. Just three civilians were injured,’’ he said.

The body of a militant had a strapped improvised explosive device which was defused by a bomb disposal squad. ‘‘We were sitting in the music studio busy recording when a deafening sound shook the building,’’ said Station Director, Radio Kashmir Rafeeq Masoodi.

This is the second suicide strike in two days and the first of such intensity in Srinagar after a gap of almost a year and a half.

This attack comes at a time when Centre’s inching towards resumption of dialogue with Pakistan and also push for a peace mission within Kashmir. The attack is seen as a violent reaction from the militants to the peace process.