The damaged JKEDI building after the gunfight ended at Sempora in Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Tuesday. Tribune Photo: Amin War
Azhar Qadri
Tribune News Service
Srinagar, February 23
Security forces began a lengthy clearance operation today to sanitise the multi-storey building at Sempora, which had been taken over by militants and turned into a bunker.The bomb disposal squads spent the entire day painstakingly searching for unexploded bombs and disposing those off.A police official said blasts were heard throughout the day and between 20 and 30 explosives — unexploded rocket shells and grenades — were detonated in a controlled environment.Sanitisation of the five-storey building, housing headquarters of the Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI), was expected to be completed by the evening, he said.Explosives were strewn on the JKEDI campus during the past three days with security forces battling three militants who had taken over one of the three multi-storey buildings.The building where militants had taken shelter, housing offices of the JKEDI, suffered extensive damage during the past three days, drawing emotional laments from the institute’s employees.“It was really painful to see a state-of-the-art structure up in flames. It is not an office but a house to us, where we have spent our days like family,” said Azmat Hussain, a JKEDI employee.The gunbattle on the campus began on Saturday afternoon. Five security force personnel and one civilian were killed during the first two days in the paramilitary convoy ambush and subsequent gunbattle.Three militants holed up in the building were killed on Monday when security forces fired a barrage of rockets at the building.The three militants were later buried by police personnel in the Sheeri area of Baramulla district in north Kashmir, nearly 100 km from the gunbattle site.The police initially took the bodies to the Buniyar locality in Baramulla, but residents objected and told the police that many militants had already been buried there, said a police official.The police had recently stopped handing over bodies of foreign militants to civilians to avoid large processions during their funerals.Meanwhile, several localities in south Kashmir observed a shutdown over the death of the militants. The shutdown was observed in parts of Pulwama, Anantnag and Kulgam districts in south Kashmir.In Pampore, close to the site of the gunbattle, the police foiled an attempt by local residents to hold a funeral in absentia for the militant trio.This led to clashes between the two sides. However, funerals in absentia for the militants were organised in Tral, Awantipora and Samboora towns of south Kashmir.