Colonel killed, 4 jawans injured in Jammu and Kashmir encounter

An Indian Army colonel was killed and four other security personnel critically injured in a fierce gun battle with Islamic militants raging in a remote village of Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier Kupwara district since Monday evening.

Police and Army sources here said the fighting started in Manigah village in Haihama area, close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Kupwara, after the Army’s 41 Rashtriya Rifles personnel, along with para commandos, moved to intercept a group of militants believed to belong to the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba.

On seeing the troops zeroing in, the militants opened heavy fire at them. Then, taking advantage of the darkness, the militants escaped into the nearby Behak forest, the sources said, adding that soon reinforcements were rushed in and that a fierce encounter was underway in the area since Tuesday morning. Army helicopters were seen flying over the area and were also used to evacuate the injured security personnel.

Reports said that in the militants’ indiscriminate fire four soldiers, including the company commander of 41 Rashtriya Rifles, Colonel Santosh Mahadik, and a policeman of J&K’s counter-insurgency Special Operations Group (SOG), were critically injured, the sources said. One of the injured Army jawans is the 160 Territorial Army’s Majnoon Ahmed, a local Kashmiri attached to 41 Rashtriya Rifles.

The injured soldiers and policemen were immediately evacuated to Srinagar’s 92 Army Base Hospital where Col. Mahadik died soon.

Defence spokesman S.D. Goswami said Col. Mahadik laid down his life while leading his troops in a fierce encounter with a group of three militants in Manigah forest area of Kupwara. “Colonel Mahadik, the commanding officer of 41 Rashtriya Rifles, made the supreme sacrifice in the highest traditions of the Indian Army. He was a true soldier and had conducted many successful counter-terrorist operations,” he said, adding that the slain officer was originally from the Special Forces and had been earlier awarded the Sena Medal “for exhibiting gallantry and leadership in counter-terrorist operations”.

Northern Command chief Lt. Gen. D.S. Hooda expressed deep condolences on the loss of a “brave officer” and said, “We owe a deep debt of gratitude to officers like Santosh who lead from the front and are willing to pay the ultimate price in the fight against terrorism.”

Colonel Mahadik leaves behind his wife and two children, aged eleven and five years and the Army is committed to providing all support to the family in this hour of grief, Mr Goswami said.