Suicide Attack in Srinagar Kills Five Police Officers

Farooq Khan/European Pressphoto Agency A Central Reserve Police Force personnel in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, in this Feb. 9, 2013 photo.

NEW DELHI

Armed militants attacked a police camp near a school in Srinagar, Kashmir, on Wednesday, killing at least five officers and injuring several police and civilians.

The attack was carried out by two armed men at the Central Reserve Police Force camp in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir state, at 10:45 in the morning, officials said. Both attackers were killed.

“It was a suicide attack,” Omar Abdullah, the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, told the state assembly.In addition to the five police officers who were killed, three civilians were injured, he said.

In the attack, the militants opened fire on the camp, which was near a school playground. The school was shut for the day, but children from nearby homes were playing cricket on the grounds, officials said.

The militants were carrying ammunition in sports kits, and started hurling grenades at police personnel, an unnamed army official who on the scene told news channel Times Now.

Azhar Qadri, a journalist who lives about 500 meters from the camp in Bemina, said that he woke up to the sounds of shooting and thuds.

“I heard sporadic shooting for about 20-25 minutes,” he said. “And the thuds sounded like grenades.”

The school was closed today, so there was “no loss to property or life,” the school’s principal, Tanzim Wahidi said. None of the schoolchildren or staff were hurt.

“We have a residential colony nearby and children com! e from there into school grounds,” he added.

The police have cordoned off roads leading to the camp. About 100 police vehicles, including riot control vehicles, are on the ground.

“This was an attack on the peace of Kashmir,” S. M Sahai, the inspector general of police in Kashmir, told journalists.

The attack was the first suicide attack in the region since January 2010, and is likely to ratchet up tension in the area and with neighboring Pakistan. Pakistan and India both claim the Kashmir Valley as their own, disputing the British partition of the region between the two countries in the 1940s.

After several years of relative calm that brought a return of tourism, the region has erupted in protests in recent weeks, after the Indian government executed a local man, Muhammad Afzal, also known as Afzal Guru, for his role in the 2001 attack on Parliament. Many in Kashmirbelieve Mr. Afzal was framed.

At the same time, Indian and Pakistani troops have skirmished on the contested border, resulting in the deaths of several soldiers on both sides.

Betwa Sharma and Malavika Vyawahare contributed reporting.