Attackers disguised as cricketers ambush Srinagar police camp

Initial investigations suggest the attackers belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba: IG Police

SRINAGAR: Two suspected militants disguised as cricketers opened fire with automatic rifles on a paramilitary camp in Srinagar on Wednesday, killing five Indian personnel and wounding five, police said.

The attackers were killed in a gunfight at the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) base.

Jammu and Kashmir state Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, describing the assault as a "suicide attack", said three civilians were also wounded.

"A division of the CRPF was deployed at a camp here and children were playing cricket in the field when two militants fired grenades and attacked our division," Abdul Gani Mir, Inspector General of Police, told Reuters TV. "We have lost five of our CRPF personnel who gunned down the two militants."

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Mir claimed that initial investigations suggested the attackers belonged to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

Police said the attack began when the gunmen got out of a car outside a school near the camp and, disguised in cricket gear, walked across the school playing field to the camp and shot a sentry dead before firing indiscriminately into the base.