Gulmarg terror attack: Police say 3-4 militants involved as search operation enters second day

Srinagar, Oct 26 (PTI) Three to four militants are believed to have carried out the deadly attack on an Army convoy in the Gulmarg sector of Jammu and Kashmir that left four people, including two soldiers, dead, a senior police official said on Saturday.

The search operation, which entered the second day, was halted at the last light on Friday and was resumed on Saturday morning, the official said.

“According to the evidence we got from there, 3-4 militants were involved in the attack,” Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Baramulla, Mohammad Zaid Malik told reporters in the north Kashmir district.

The police, Army and paramilitary forces are carrying out the search operation, which has been extended to Baba Reshi and forest areas in Gulmarg as well as the built-up area before it, the SSP said.

The SSP said security forces had been carrying out many input-based search operations on the militants in the Pattan-Kreeri area of the Baramulla district in the days ahead of the attack.

Two soldiers and two Army porters were killed in the attack on Thursday, while another porter and a soldier were injured. Terrorists opened fire on an Army vehicle, 6 km from the tourist hotspot Gulmarg in the Bota Pathri area, when it was headed for the Nagin post in the Affarwat range.

On Friday, security forces deployed drones and helicopters for a massive search operation in the area and along the Line of Control (LoC) in the Gulmarg sector.

Security forces were also using human and technical intelligence inputs to aid the search operation launched to trace and neutralise the terrorists behind the attack, officials said.

Senior officers of the police and Army are overseeing the operation.

The area is completely dominated by the Army and there were reports recently that a terrorist group had infiltrated during early summer and taken shelter in the higher reaches of the Affarwat range.