A police officer stands guard outside the Jammu district jail after the militant attack on Wednesday. (Reuters)

Policemen stand beside the body of a militant who died in the shootout. (Reuters)

Jammu, March 3: A militant got off a mini-bus in front of the main gate of the high-security district jail here and opened fire on a police bus taking undertrials to court, killing six persons before he was shot dead in an audacious attempt to free a colleague.

Four policemen, including an assistant sub-inspector, Harbans Lal Sharma, were killed by the spray of bullets from an automatic assault rifle around 10.10 am today.

A civilian and Pakistani militant Showkat Ali, who was one of the undertrials on the bus, were the others killed. Twelve people were wounded in the indiscriminate firing.

The militant, identified as Bilal Ahmad of the Lashkar-e-Toiba after initial investigations, had come to free Shamas-ud-Din of the same group who was also on the bus heading to court, police said.

But before he could succeed, he was overpowered and killed, 10 minutes after he had arrived at the jail by public transport. An unarmed jail warden, Jarnail Singh, pounced on the militant, snatched his rifle and shot him dead with it, police sources said.

Had the policemen not acted on time, the casualties could have been higher, inspector- general of police P.L. Gupta said. “They are martyrs,” he added.

Of the 500 inmates in the jail located in the heart of Jammu, one-fourth are militants — both local and of Pakistani origin.

The prison, built over 100 years ago, is guarded by over 100 policemen. Its walls measure 12 feet in thickness and are further fortified by barbed wire.

Gupta said the militant had explosives strapped to his abdomen, indicating he was on a suicide mission.

A Kalashnikov rifle, four grenades and some magazines were seized. Some papers saying “how to attack and how to escape” were also found on him, police said. A red alert has been sounded in the town and all entry and exit points are being guarded as the police suspect that more fidayeen (suicide attackers) might be present.

Union home secretary Anil Baijal reviewed the security situation with the police and paramilitary force officers here this afternoon.

This is the second major attack in Jammu after the January 2 strike on the railway station that killed seven security personnel.