Day after winning bravery award, Army officer dies fighting Hizbul-Mujahideen militants
Srinagar: An Army officer and a policeman were killed in a fire fight with Islamic militants in Tral area of Jammu and Kashmir’s southern Pulwama district on Tuesday. Two Hizbul-Mujahideen militants including a top commander were ‘neutralized’ during the clash.
Police and Army said that after receiving a 'special input' about the presence of militants in Hundoora village of the district, security forces including Army’s 42-Rashtriya Rifles, local police's counter insurgency Special Operations Group (SOG) and members of CRPF’s 185 Battalion laid siege to the area on Tuesday morning to start searches.
As the security forces zeroed in on a private house, the militants present there fired at them triggering a gunfight. An initial barrage of gunfire from holed up militants left three policemen and the commanding officer of Army's 42 Rashtriya Rifles, Colonel Munindra Nath Rai, and another soldier injured. Col. Rai and a police head constable Sanjeevan Singh succumbed to their injuries soon, officials said. They added that as the fire fight continued for about an hour, two local militants Sheraz Ahmed Dar and Abid Hussein Khan alias Hamza were also killed.
Col. Rai was awarded a gallantry medal just a day earlier on the occasion of Republic Day. He was awarded Yudh Seva medal for his role in a gun battle with militants in a south Kashmir village last year, a defence spokesperson here said.
A defence release here said Col Rai was a brave officer and had been involved in intense operations in South Kashmir for last two years. "He always led from the front and undertook successful operations resulting into elimination of number of terrorists in past for which he was awarded with Yudh Sena Medal on Republic Day in recognition of his exemplary service and bravery," it added.
A report from Tral said that Col. Rai had along with another soldier and three policemen tried to enter the house but were critically injured in militants’ firing. They were airlifted to Srinagar’s 92 Army base Hospital where he and SOG head-constable Singh breathed their last soon.
Police sources said that one of the militants Abid, a district commander of the Hizb, along with his associate had come to see the former's ailing brother Owais, who is suffering from cancer. Abid’s father Jalaluddin Khan is a police head-constable and the mother a government employee. Both Army and police officials termed his killing as a “huge setback” to the militants particularly the Hizb and ‘major success’ to the security forces and claimed that he was, for his being involved in many killings, one of the most wanted militants by police.
Dar, before joining militants’ ranks, was a baker by profession. A resident of Tral’s Arigund village, he joined militancy in August 2014 after he stole a rifle from his SOG friend, Latif Ahmad Gojri, at his family quarters in Tral. Two AK 47 rifles with magazines and ammunition, one hand-grenade and two pouches were found on the slain militants, officials said. The killing of Col. Rai is the first casualty on Army in 2015 whereas it has in joint operations with other security forces, so far, this year neutralized ten militants.
Soon after Tuesday’s gun battle, massive protests broke out in the area. Hundreds of local men and women were seen marching towards the gunfight site while chanting pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. Stray incidents of violence including street clashes and suspending of work by traders and transporters were also reported from several parts of Tral including Dadsar and Hundoora.
