'Fidayeen' eliminated, Lal Chowk secured

Both the fidayeen (suicide attackers), who had struck at Lal Chowk in the heart of the Jammu and Kashmir capital on Wednesday, were eliminated by the security forces on Thursday, ending a 22-hour-long gun battle.

For the forces, the challenge was three-fold — to rescue civilians in and around New Punjab Hotel where the militants were holed up, minimise casualties and finally, eliminate the militants without much collateral damage. The forces achieved the objective and secured the area at the expense of a CRPF jawan and a civilian. Nine others, including two media men, were injured in the crossfire, while the hotel was partially gutted.

“Our prime task was to evacuate civilians and save property at the busy chowk [crossroads]. Incidentally, we were close by when the fidayeen attack was launched and the militants were forced to hide in the hotel. We cornered them and began evacuating civilians,” Hemant Kumar Lohia, DIG (central Kashmir range), who oversaw the operation, said.

The forces realised that the challenge of rescuing civilians was bigger than estimated when reports came in that there were more people trapped in shops, banks and courts.

“Three mobile bunkers were pressed into service. These covered the shops from fire and civilians were taken to safety. We also announced through the media to call our helpline if anybody needed to be rescued. This worked, as we got a number of calls from people trapped, telling their locations,” Lohia said.

Nearly 200 people were rescued through the night from buildings surrounding the hotel, before the final assault was launched.
Once the safety of civilians was ensured, crack commandos of police and CRPF breached the rear wall of the hotel on Thursday morning opening heavy machine-gun fire. “Around 15-16 police and CRPF jawans then stormed the hotel. They used the intervention technique [sign language and shouting to engage ultras] to secure the area and kill the militants,” Lohia said.

The final assault was two-pronged. “It was a room-by-room operation. We used stun grenades and assault riffles to secure the rooms. After clearing each room, we deployed at least one jawan there to prevent reentry of the militants. The militants threw five grenades at us. The first militant was killed on the staircase. By 12.30 pm, both militants had been killed and the hotel secured,” Lohia said.

The hotel caught fire when the militants tried to burst an LPG cylinder. “But our fire tenders were ready and the blaze was doused,” the DIG said.