Intelligence inputs treated as routine, lack of coordination among security agencies and lowering of the guard late at night helped terror start the New Year with a daring strike. Barely a month after serial blasts in three court premises in Uttar Pradesh, seven CRPF personnel were among eight killed and five injured when heavily armed terrorists stormed a recruitment centre of the paramilitary force in Rampur in a pre-dawn attack today.

All four terrorists, who were reportedly in CRPF uniform, fled.

The attack took place around 2.30 am today when a group of jawans were warming themselves in the chill, huddled around a bonfire at the main gate of the centre which sprawls across 150 acres.

Armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades, the attackers reached the sentry post along the Delhi-Lucknow railway line — the tracks serve as a boundary between the CRPF centre and the road next to it — and killed four paramilitary personnel and a rickshaw-puller, Inspector General (Operations) of CRPF A P Maheshwari said.

After this first attack, the attackers hurled a grenade at the main gate and fired indiscriminately, he said, adding that the terrorists possibly wanted to sneak into the camp’s armoury next door.

The Quick Reaction Team of the recruitment centre hit back forcing three of them to flee. One, however, managed to enter the administrative block of the centre where he killed three unarmed CRPF men, Maheshwari said. CRPF personnel fired at the lone militant who also escaped.

The CRPF personnel killed were identified as Afzal Ahmed, Anand Kumar, Ramji Sharan, Manbir Singh, Devinder Kumar, Vikas Saini and Rishikesh Sahai.

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