Pampore video shows ultras raining bullets for 2 minutes

Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, June 27

Even as the Kashmir valley has been put on an alert after the deadly Pampore ambush that left eight Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel dead, a dramatic video of the attack has emerged which shows militants opening indiscriminate fire on the halted CRPF bus.

The 110-second video has been shot by a local villager from across the Jhelum. It shows two militants dressed in black shirts and trousers firing at the CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu highway at Frestbal, Pampore, 15 km from Srinagar.  The amateur mobile phone footage shows militants firing bullets for nearly two minutes.

The video shows one of the  militants  raising his gun and  pointing it towards the CRPF bus, just to ensure that maximum bullets hit those inside. Then another gunman comes to one side of the bus and pumps more bullets on the  bus that was on its way to Srinagar from Lethpora, Pulwama. Inspector General (Operations), CRPF, Nalin Prabhat said that the video clearly showed the two militants were ‘fidayeen’ (ultras on a suicide mission).

“As the video ends, it showed that the CRPF had pinned them down,” Prabhat told The Tribune. 

As is clear from the video, the militants had enough time to flee but they engaged the security forces in a gunfight. The two militants were killed in the retaliatory firing.

A senior police officer said other videos of the attack had also emerged and the police were analysing  them. 

The  unidentified local, who has shot the video, seemed to be under impression that the security men were firing aimlessly which is evident from background voices. “Worried” women can also be heard in the  background while the  person shooting the video tells them to remain low.

However, questions are being raised about lapses on the part of the CRPF that might have led to high casualties in the ambush. A Road Opening Party (ROP) of  the CRPF always sanitises the highway before the daily convoys pass the road to reach Srinagar. The ROP was on duty at the time of the attack.