SRINAGAR, March 9: The Indian government's media centre in Srinagar went up in flames on Tuesday after it was stormed by militants, leaving two of the attackers dead and six troops injured.
Huge flames shot into the sky in the heart of Srinagar three and a half hours after the militants stormed the three-storey building firing automatic rifles and hurling grenades, police said.
The top floor tumbled down on fire with the body of one militant, whose grenade detonated on crashing to the ground. Police said the body of one more militant was believed to be under debris and that six Indian soldiers were wounded, with one in critical condition.
Just before the blaze broke out, troops evacuated the families of more than a dozen journalists who live and work adjacent to the building, which houses the Indian government's information department.
Fire fighters by late night doused the fire, which cut off electricity in Srinagar's busiest area. It was the most sensational attack in the city since India and Pakistan entered a truce in November and reopened peace talks.
"Security personnel will not move into the building until morning as there may be explosives inside. We will then come to know whether any other militants were there," a police official said.
The militants were disguised in police uniform and fired automatic rifles and hurled grenades at the main gate, said the official, quoting one of the two troops injured in the initial attack. The BBC, CNN and more than a dozen Indian newspapers keep offices and correspondents' residences in a "press enclave" next to the building. No journalists or their relatives were injured.
It was not immediately clear what set off the fire or how many people if any were trapped inside the building. Most government workers are currently stationed in occupied Jammu.
Tariq Rather, who works in the information bureau but left for home an hour before the attack, said about 20 dozen soldiers were regularly stationed at the building.
He said his guard escaped by jumping out to safety. The Al Mansooran group claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to the Srinagar-based Current News Service.
A spokesman for the outfit said it was responding to comments by the Indian government's top representative in held Kashmir, Governor S.K. Sinha, who said there had been no major attacks in Srinagar or held Jammu in recent months.
Mr Sinha was speaking on Monday at Uri, on the Line of Control, where he hailed a Nov 26 ceasefire with Pakistan. "Never before in the last 40 to 50 years has the climate for peace been as favourable as it is today," Mr Sinha told reporters in a military compound exposed to Pakistani gunners. But Mr Sinha acknowledged attacks continued inside held Kashmir, saying troops were making militants "pay a heavy price for it".
Indian officials have said in the past that Al Mansooran is a front for Lashkar-i-Taiba. Two militants and two civilians were killed in violence elsewhere in held Kashmir on Tuesday and late Monday, police said. -AFP
