SRINAGAR, September 26: In a daredevil attack on police station at Hiranagar in Kathua district of Jammu, bordering Punjab state, militants have killed four police personnel and two civilians before they escaped in a hijacked truck and got trapped in another fierce gunbattle with Army on the national highway.
Official sources told The Hindu that three militants in police uniform arrived at Hiranagar police station in an auto rickshaw around 7.00 a.m. on Thursday and trooped into the premises without facing resistance. They fired indiscriminately and lobbed hand grenades. Four policemen died in the attack, according to preliminary reports.
Sources said that the militants also gunned down the driver of a truck and another civilian died in exchange of gunfire before they hijacked the vehicle and drove away towards Kathua- Jammu part of the national highway.
As an alert was flashed to all police and military posts, army reportedly intercepted the hijacked truck near a military formation between Kathua and Samba. Reports said that a fierce encounter was going on and traffic had been suspended on the highway.
Sources said that IGP Jammu Rajesh Kumar and DIG Jammu-Kathua range Shakeel Beg were on way to Hiranagar. None of the officers responded to phone calls even as Police Control Room Jammu flashed the information of six fatal casualties to most of the police and civil officials.
This is the first fidayeen attack in Jammu and Kashmir after five CRPF men and three militants died in a suicide strike on a paramilitary camp at Bemina in Srinagar in March this year and eight army men were killed in another fidayeen-type attack at Hyderpora in July. No fidayeen attack has taken place in Jammu province in the last several years.
Hiranagar town is situated just five kilometers from the International Border between India and Pakistan
