Eyewitnesses of attack on army camp
recount their brush with death
Death was but a door away for three photojournalists who witnessed the killing of army public relations officer Major P Purushottam and six others by extremists in his office in Srinagar last evening.
S Tariq of ANI, Habib Ullah Naqash of The Asian Age and Faiyaz Ahmad of New Delhi TeleVision were still in shock when they were brought before reporters today.
They said they were sitting in Major Purushottam's office when some shots were heard outside. The major initially dismissed it as some firecrackers being burst by children.
Suddenly the runner of the PRO office came in and warned that some militants had sneaked into the cantonment area and were firing indiscriminately.
"It was Major Purushottam who asked us to go inside the toilet and bolt the door from inside. Before we could understand what had happened we heard a volley of shots being fired inside the office seconds after we -- three photo journalists and the runner -- entered the toilet," Tariq said.
"The firing continued for about an hour and it was only after the militants ran towards the Cantonment Board building that we were rescued by the army.
"Had it not been for Major Purushottam who told us to get into the toilet, we would have been dead," they said.
Meanwhile, the army schools inside the cantonment were kept closed after the incident.
A senior army officer said Major Purushottam's wife, a nurse in the army, would be arriving in Srinagar later in the day from Meerut.
UNI
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