Srinagar: An unspecified number of militants have barged into the multi-level Hostel of the Entreprnuership Development Institute (EDI) at Pampore. In an earlier attack, the EDI lost its main building to a few days of encounter.
Informed sources told that one of the officials of the EDI detected smoke in the hostel early morning. As he tried to extinguish the fire, the militant presence was detected that, by now, has led to the cordon and establishment of contact between the army and the militants.
The EDI official who normally stays put in the EDI guest house, the small three-story building between the main complex that was damaged earlier and the Hotel that is right now under attack, barely survived the attack when he went to manage the top floor fire.
Director EDI Dr M I Parray told that he got a phone call from his staffer at around 6 am, saying that there was short circuit and he was on way to manage the resultant fire in the building. “I drove to EDI and reached by 6.30 am and by then it was established that militants had barged in and taken positions,” a shocked Dr Parray said. “Then army and police came and we were advised to leave.”
The official who detected the infiltration said that when he rushed to the top floor of the hostel to extinguish the fire he saw all the sofas and furniture jumbled at a place – blocking the main staircase – that indicated it was deliberate. “I had rang up the SHO Pampore telling him that a fire tender was required,” the official said, “After detecting the state of furniture on top floor, I rang him up again asking him that it was not short circuit but it was man-made as somebody is inside.”
By the time fire tenders reached and the official moved out of the building, militants had fired a couple of shots towards him. “It was a miraculous escape but I believe they had lit the fires to get the attention,” the official said, “The smoke stopped coming out soon after.”
By around 8 am, encounter had started and initial reports suggest that one soldier has received a bullet injury. The building is surrounded by all sides by the armed forces.
Police officials contacted on phone said they would talk only after they get the details.
After the main building was destroyed by the last Fadayeen attack, the EDI had shifted its office to this very building. Now its records and everything it rebuilt is again in danger.