CRPF DG K Durga Prasad said the terrorists were clean shaven and that "shows" that they were fidayeen attackers.
In the deadliest attack on security forces in recent years, eight Central Reserve Police Force personnel were killed and 21 others critically wounded when terrorists rained bullets on a bus carrying them at Pampore, near Srinagar, in what appeared to be a fidayeen attack carried out by the Lashkar-e-Tayiba.
"First hand impression of the bodies of the terrorists is that both appear to be Pakistanis, definitely from Lashksr, and in all likelihood they were fidayeen (suicide attackers)," Inspector General of Police, CRPF Nalin Prabhat said.
The bus, which was returning after a firing exercise to Srinagar, was ambushed by two terrorists from the opposite side. "They got down from a car and fired indiscriminately at the bus," Prabhat said. "Before they could enter the bus, which had come to a halt due to the firing, they were killed by the road opening party of the CRPF."
The terrorists attacked the bus carrying personnel of the CRPF's 161 battalion at Frestbal, 14 km from Srinagar. According to some accounts, two more terrorists were involved in the attack, but there was no official confirmation of this.
The injured were rushed to hospital where the doctors declared five of them having been brought dead. The condition of four of the 21 wounded personnel is stated to be critical.
After the encounter ended, the bodies of three more CRPF personnel were found on the back seats of the bus, raising the death toll to eight.
The terrorists appeared to have carefully chosen the spot for the ambush as every vehicle has to slow down because of a sharp curve on the road. Security agencies suspect a reconnaisance may have preceded the assault.
This is the third terror strike in three weeks targeting security personnel and the deadliest after the June 24, 2013 attack on army personnel at Hyderpora on the outskirts of Srinagar in which nine soldiers were killed.
Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police K Rajendra, who visited the spot, said two terrorists had been neutralised, but "unfortunately we have suffered some causalities too."
Asked whether the slain terrorists were from across the border, Rajendra said, "In all probability they seem to be from Pakistan."
Director General, CRPF, Durga Prasad will visit the scene of the encounter on Sunday, June 26.
This is the second attack on a bus carrying security personnel in three weeks. On June 3, terrorists fired at a bus carrying Border Security Force personnel in Bijbehara, killing two BSF troopers. On June 4, terrorists killed three policemen at a bus stand.
CRPF DG K Durga Prasad said the terrorists were clean shaven and that "shows" that they were fidayeen attackers.
Security forces, he said, have recovered two AK series assault rifles, 11 magazines, 124 AK bullets, some grenades and medicines from the terrorists that revealed they came "well prepared for a continued attack."
The terrorists tried to enter the bus, Prasad added, but were killed in retaliatory fire by CRPF troopers traveling in another vehicle.
The terrorists ambushed the bus, carrying 40 CRPF men, at a blind turn, the CRPF DG said.
"There was some retaliation from those inside the bus too," he said.
Prasad felt such incidents in J&K indicate that the attacks have "increased".
The DG said the CRPF will take the terrorists' challenge head on, even as he said it tries to "contain" their losses.
The CRPF has identified the martyrs as Sub-Inspectors Jaichandran (Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala) and Sanjay Kumar (Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh), Head Constables Vir Singh (Shikohabad, UP) and Jagtar Singh (Ropar, Punjab) and Constables Satish (Meerut, UP), Kailash K Yadav (Unnao, UP), Santosh S (Aurangabad, UP) and Rajesh (Allahabad, UP).
All the slain CRPF troopers belonged to the 161st battalion of the force deployed in Jammu and Kashmir.
In a separate incident, two terrorists were killed in an encounter with security forces on Saturday evening in Uri in north Kashmir's Baramulla district, the police said.
Acting on a tip-off about the terrorists' presence in Lachipora area in Uri, a joint police and army team launched a search operation in the area, a police officer said.
As the security forces were carrying out the search operation, the terrorists fired upon them, triggering an encounter in which the two terrorists were killed, he said.
Reportage: Mukhtar Ahmad for Rediff.com in Srinagar and PTI. Photographs: Umar Ganie
