From Rajbagh To Lethpora: A History Of Major Attacks On CRPF Camps In Jammu And Kashmir

The attacks did not always begin with an explosion or a warning. Sometimes, heavily armed militants forced their way into buildings where paramilitary personnel were stationed; at other times, they struck at the heart of a security deployment, turning a camp into the site of a prolonged gun battle. Over the years, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed several such assaults on Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) installations, leaving personnel dead and exposing the vulnerability of locations meant to provide security.

From the attack on a CRPF camp in Srinagar's Rajbagh in 2004 to the assault on its Group Centre at Lethpora in 2017, these incidents trace a grim chapter in the region's counter-insurgency history. This timeline draws only on government records, including Ministry of Home Affairs reports, parliamentary documents, the National Investigation Agency and CRPF accounts.

Rajbagh, Sopore And Dal Lake: A Series Of Attacks In 2004

On July 27, 2004, two terrorists entered the premises of the Leeward Hotel near Dal Lake in Srinagar, which housed a CRPF company. A gunfight followed, killing five CRPF personnel and two terrorists. The attack was among several assaults on CRPF establishments in the Valley that year, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs' Annual Report for 2004-05.

A week later, on August 4, two suicide attackers struck the CRPF camp housed in the Feroz Manzil building in Rajbagh, Srinagar. The exchange of fire left nine CRPF personnel, including an Assistant Commandant, and one terrorist dead. Seven other CRPF personnel were injured. The scale of the casualties made the assault one of the deadliest attacks on a CRPF installation recorded in the ministry's account of that year.

The violence continued into September. In the intervening night of September 11 and 12, militants carried out a fidayeen attack on the headquarters of the CRPF's 94th Battalion in Srinagar. Two Deputy Commandants were killed, while the Commandant and four other personnel were injured. On December 3, two armed terrorists attacked the company headquarters of the CRPF's 16th Battalion in Sopore, Baramulla district. Both attackers were killed in the ensuing gun battle, but five CRPF personnel also lost their lives.

The ministry's account also recorded an attack on January 15, 2005, when two armed terrorists forced their way into a building housing the Passport Office and Saifuddin Club of the Sports Council, near Bakshi Stadium in Srinagar. Both attackers and two CRPF personnel were killed. Though not described as a conventional CRPF camp assault, the incident reflected the risks faced by personnel deployed at public and government premises.

From Bemina To Lethpora: The Return Of Fidayeen Assaults

On March 13, 2013, militants stormed a CRPF deployment in Bemina, Srinagar. Five CRPF personnel and two militants were killed in the fidayeen attack, according to a Ministry of Home Affairs document submitted to Parliament in December 2015. The assault was among the major terrorist incidents recorded in Jammu and Kashmir that year.

The next major attack on a CRPF camp in this timeline came on December 30, 2017, when three heavily armed terrorists entered the CRPF Group Centre at Lethpora in Pulwama district at around 2 am. According to the National Investigation Agency, the assault took place during the intervening night of December 30 and 31. Five CRPF personnel were killed, while three terrorists were also killed during the operation. The NIA registered a case in February 2018 to investigate the attack.

The assault continued for more than 36 hours. A government account published in connection with the gallantry award to Constable Rajendra Kumar Nain of the CRPF's 130th Battalion described how three terrorists entered a four-storey building inside the camp. Security personnel first evacuated around 10 trapped personnel before moving to engage the attackers. Nain, who accompanied an Assistant Commandant during the operation, was fatally wounded while attempting to confront a militant in the building's attic. He later succumbed to his injuries.

The Lethpora attack was followed by another deadly assault on CRPF personnel in the same district in February 2019. However, that attack targeted a convoy travelling along the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway, not a camp. The NIA records that a vehicle laden with explosives struck the convoy at Lethpora on February 14, killing 40 CRPF personnel. It remains essential to distinguish the convoy bombing from attacks on fixed CRPF installations when tracing the history of assaults on the force's camps.

These incidents, spread across more than a decade, show how CRPF installations in Jammu and Kashmir became targets of armed assaults, from buildings housing individual companies to a major Group Centre. The official records preserve the dates, casualties and details of the operations; behind each entry is a security deployment transformed, in a matter of moments, into a battlefield.