SRINAGAR: Indian army commandos killed three militants holed up in an officers’ mess and another person was shot dead during a six-hour gunbattle at an army base in India-held Kashmir on Wednesday, an army officer said.

“Three ‘terrorists’ were killed in the exchange of fire that began in the morning hours. One soldier was wounded in the gunfight,” defence spokesman N.N. Joshi said. A civilian who worked on the base was also killed in the firing, Joshi said, adding that the attack ended some six hours after the militants infiltrated the base.

Another officer said the militants cut a perimeter fence and penetrated the battalion headquarters in Tangdhar in northern Kashmir.

“It is seems to be a well-planned attack,” said the officer, who asked not to be identified.

A reinforcement of army commandos led the counter-assault, and the intense exchange of gunfire left some barracks and a vehicle on fire, he said. Bodies of the three militants and of the civilian worker were recovered.

The officer said the attackers armed with AK-47s had taken up positions in the officers’ mess and blown up a kerosene tank, wounding one person.

The militants entered the army camp at around 6am but the firing started about an hour later, he added.

In a similar attack in July in India’s state of Punjab a group of gunmen dressed in military fatigues took over a police station. The assailants were all killed in a 12-hour gunbattle.

Militant violence remains a problem in the disputed Himalayan region although levels of violence are down from the levels of the 1990s when an armed revolt against Indian rule erupted.

In the first 10 months of this year 79 people were killed in attacks, a similar number to those who died in 2014 and 2013, according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal, which tracks militant violence.

Published in Dawn, November 26th, 2015