Leaders across the political spectrum including Congress President Sonia Gandhi condemned the attack. President Pranab Mukherjee said India will not be cowed down by such attacks and that it will thwart the evil designs of terrorists and their backers.
The attack at the administrative base of the 10 Dogra, which top Army officials described as a “serious setback”, was launched at 0530 hours and ended at 0830 hours with the killing of four terrorists and martyrdom of 17 soldiers.
Explosions and gunfire erupted as the militants attacked the camp, which is located barely few metres away from the Army’s Brigade Headquarters in Uri town.
The jawans of the Dogra Regiment were sleeping in a tent which caught fire due the explosion. The fire also engulfed the nearby barracks, official sources said.
DGMO Lt Gen Ranbir Singh called up his counterpart in Pakistan expressing “serious concerns” over Pakistani marking found on the equipment used by four “foreign” terrorists.
“All four killed were foreign terrorists and had carried with them items which had Pakistani markings. Initial reports indicate that the slain terrorists belong to Jaish-E-Mohammed tanzeem,” Lt Gen Singh said in a brief statement to the media at South Block in Delhi.
He added that since “some the terrorists had some items with Pakistani markings, I have spoken to Pakistan DGMO and conveyed our serious concern on the same”.
He said that the terrorists had fired incendiary ammunition along with automatic fire of small arms that led to army tents and temporary shelters catching fire.
“There have been a total of 17 Army fatal casualties. Of these, 13-14 casualties have been due to these tents/shelters having caught fire,” he said.
Sourced from agencies, Feature image courtesy: www.ndtv.com
