Four troopers were killed and two suffered bullet wounds in a suicide attack carried out by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed on a CRPF camp in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama early on Sunday, an official said.

At least two heavily armed militants of the Jaish, which claimed responsibility for the attack, hurled grenades and stormed the 185th battalion camp of the Central Reserve Police Force in Lethpora in restive Kashmir Valley around 2am.

The personnel on sentry duty returned fire, and a gun battle ensued. Three troopers died of bullet wounds and the fourth due to a cardiac arrest during the operation. The wounded soldiers were rushed to a hospital, where they are said to be stable.

After their infiltration, the militants were holed up in a building block at the camp from where they opened fire at the forces before being gunned down.

The main building at the camp comprises three blocks. Block 1 is used to accommodate the families of officials. Block 3, which has a hospital and a control room, was hit by the militants, the CRPF said.

The Lethpora camp also serves as training centre for troops inducted for counter-militancy operations in the state, according to PTI. Besides, a Jammu and Kashmir Police team is co-located with CRPF personnel in the camp.

In a statement, the CRPF said there was a possibility of similar attacks on other camps. CRPF IG Ravideep Sahi too said there were intelligence inputs about attacks on “security installations”.

The attack came in the wake of a string of high-profile counter-insurgency operations that have dealt blows to Jaish, Laskhar-e-Taiba, another Pakistan-based group, and the home-grown Hizbul Mujahideen. Security forces have killed around 200 militants in Kashmir this year.

Noor Mohammad Tantray, a top Jaish commander who masterminded several attacks on security forces and was looking to revive the Pakistan-based outfit in the Valley, was killed in an overnight encounter in Pulwama on December 26.

Sunday’s predawn strike followed a pattern of militancy in the state, where eight security personnel died after militants stormed a district police complex in Pulwama in August. In another predawn raid the same month, a soldier was killed after militants targeted a Border Security Force (BSF) camp near the Srinagar airport.

Both attacks, which ended after hours of gunfight, are believed to have been carried out by a Jaish special squad, which the outfit says was formed to avenge the death of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, who was hanged in 2013.