Day After Nagrota Terror Attack, Army Investigates Huge Security Breach

Nagrota: A day after two officers and five jawans were killed in a massive terror attack on an army base near Jammu at Nagrota town, searches are on and the army is investigating how the terrorists breached the high security cantonment.

A group of heavily-armed suicide attackers in police uniforms entered the base around 5.30 am on Tuesday and forced their way in, throwing grenades. They took position in buildings occupied by army officers' families, which led to a hostage-like crisis for hours.

The bodies of three terrorists have been found. The army says the base is being sanitized and the search operation is not over.

One of the officers and three soldiers were killed when the terrorists barged into the base, which is around 20 km from Jammu, and opened fire. The rest were killed while trying to rescue family members of army men, including two women and their newborns.

The women blocked the terrorists from entering their homes using "household items", an officer was quoted as telling the Press Trust of India. They were saved, along with their babies, 18 months and two months old.

It is not yet clear how the terrorists crossed so many check-posts on the Jammu-Srinagar highway to approach the base - which is close to a river and thick forests.

The Nagrota base is one of four command centres in Jammu and Kashmir and home to over 1,000 officers. It is the headquarters of the army's 16 Corps, which defends the borders and fights terrorists in the greater Jammu region.

The attack was reminiscent of January's deadly strike on an air force base in Pathankot, and comes just two months after 19 soldiers were killed by Pakistani terrorists at an army camp in Uri. In what was seen as retaliation, the army carried out surgical strikes across the Line of Control targeting staging areas in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir for terrorists.