- By Kamal Kumar
- Fri, 24 Nov 2023 04:08 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Jammu witnessed the wreath-laying ceremony of four brave hearts of the Indian army on Friday who laid their lives for the motherland during the Rajouri encounter. Two dreaded Pakistani militants were killed in the encounter which took place for more than 36 hours in the thick forests of Kalakote in Kashmir. Preliminary reports from the Indian army suggest that the terrorists were highly trained and had war-like storage of arms and ammunition with them.
(Security personnel stand guard at the site after an encounter with militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district, on Wednesday.)
However, a shocking revelation also surfaced on Friday about the identity of one of the terrorists. Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi, while addressing the media briefing, said that one of the terrorists was a former soldier of the Pakistan army. The terrorist, code-named Qari, was a trained sniper and a senior Lashkar-e-Taiba commander, said the Lt General.
The Northern Command head was also apprised of the involvement of Quari in previous attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. He said that Qari, along with some of his accomplices, was involved in the killing of innocent civilians in Dangri, Kandi, and Rajouri, and their elimination was a priority for the joint forces team involved in the operation. He had been active in the Rajouri-Poonch area along with his group in the past year.
"They may have received training in many countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan. They were very well trained, which is why it took us some time to eliminate them. Our boys fought with courage. Lance Naik Sanjay Bisht had promised to eliminate them within 7 days, and the statement given by Captain MV Pranjal's father in Bengaluru (about how the family was waiting to hear from him and, instead, received his mortal remains) will motivate our soldiers to discharge their salient duties against all odds," Lt Gen. Dwivedi said.
Qari was the mastermind behind the Dhangri and Kandi twin attacks, resulting in the tragic loss of 7 civilians and injuries to 14. Trained on the fronts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, he was an expert in making IEDs. The Indian army also killed one of his associates in the operation, and their bodies are with the armed forces now.
The operation, deemed one of the most complex ones for armed forces in Kashmir, witnessed four soldiers, Captain M V Pranjal, Captain Shubham Gupta, Lance Naik Sanjay Bisht, and Paratrooper Sachin Laur laying their lives for the country. A Jammu and Kashmir Police personnel, Havildar Abdul Majid also attained supreme sacrifice in the operation.