Indian police officials, civilians and army personnel look on as smoke rises during an attack by militants on an army camp at Mesar in Samba District, southeast of Jammu, on Sept. 26, 2013
Twelve people, including an army officer, were killed on Thursday, when suspected Islamist militants, dressed in army uniform, attacked a police station and an army camp in Jammu province, part of India’s northernmost state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The militants lobbed grenades and fired automatic guns at the Hira Nagar police station in Kathua district, 7 km from the border with Pakistan, killing a shopkeeper and four policemen.
The three militants then stormed into a nearby army camp, in a stolen truck, where a gun battle with troops ensued.
“There has been an attack on a police station and an army camp … we are collecting information,” Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde told reporters in New Delhi.
The audacious attack — the first of its kind in Jammu after an almost 11-year hiatus — comes as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh prepares to meet his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City this week.