The Lashkar-e-Taiba on Monday paid tribute to the militants who attacked an Army camp in Sunjuwan in Jammu and Kashmir and killed five soldiers and a civilian on Saturday. The militant group had killed 12 soldiers and injured nine in an attack on the camp in June 2003.

“Indian forces only know how to spill the blood of innocent Kashmiris but the same forces pick their dead in any fight against the freedom fighters,” LeT chief in the state, Mehmood Shah, said. “This is the bitter truth India wants to hide from its nation.” The militant boasted that a handful of fighters had held their own against the Army for hours.

Security forces had said earlier that they were certain that the Jaish-e-Mohammed had carried out the attack. “Intercepts suggest that the terrorists involved in the attack belong to the Jaish-e-Mohammad group,” Director General of the Jammu and Kashmir Police SP Vaid had said.

The Army also said a search of the belongings of the militants killed confirmed that they were from the JeM. Senior Superintendent of Jammu Police Vivek Gupta said “Jaish flags were recovered from the terrorists who were killed”. The JeM is also believed to have orchestrated the attack on the Indian Air Force base in Pathankot in January 2016, in which seven officers were killed.

The Army on Sunday night began a clearing operation at the camp. It fired mortar shells at the vacated residential quarters of the camp and set them ablaze.