A report said that a third CRPF jawan among the injured too has died in hospital.
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No militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack but sources said that a fidayeen group of Lashkar comprising two to three militants is involved in the attack.
Srinagar-based Public Relations Officer of CRPF, Bhuvesh Kumar, told GNS that a total of 11 CRPF men were injured out of which two succumbed.
The militants attacked the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel near Srinagar, Kashmir’s capital, before invading the premises of the Entrepreneurship Development Institute, where about 100 people were undergoing a training programme. “There are civilians inside and first priority is to get them out of the building”, the spokesman said.
The official said soon after the attack, the militants rushed towards nearby EDI building and took refuge in it amid heavy exchange of gunfire with CRPF’s Road Opening Party (ROP). A column of Army is on standby. “Three militants are believed to be holed up there”.
An EDI employee Ashfaq Mir told Mail Today that all civilians have been evacuated by the police and paramilitary forces in seven shifts.
Two CRPF men have been injured in the firing. “They asked everyone to save themselves and go to the next building”, a witness who worked at the institute said, asking to remain anonymous. The operation was still on since the last report came in, an official said. Dozens others were trapped inside the main block, the hostel and other buildings within the campus.
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He further said that numbers of employees are inside the institute, security forces or on job to evacuate them safely. “All JKEDI does is train youngsters to look beyond government jobs & become entrepreneurs”.
