R.I.P Colonel Santosh Mahadik
A colonel died and two security personnel sustained serious injuries in a gun battle with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Tuesday.
Colonel Santosh Mahadik, commanding officer of the 41 Rashtriya Rifles, was injured when a search party he was leading came under fire from militants in the dense forests of Haji Naka along the Line of Control.
Army and police personnel were carrying out searches as part of an operation that started on November 13 to flush out terrorists -- suspected to be from Lashkar-e-Taiba -- hiding in the forest area.
The militants fled deep into the forests and the security forces continued to chase them, and a fresh encounter erupted on Tuesday, an official said.
The injured include a police official of the Special Operations group in Jammu and Kashmir police. He was identified as Majloon Ahmad.
According to sources, the group of terrorists infiltrated into the Indian side on the intervening night of October 30-31, but were trapped in the area due to rain and heavy snowfall.
The army unit that is at the helm of the ongoing operations had recently recovered the body of a militant believed to have died due to hypothermia.
Across Jammu and Kashmir, there were 70 infiltration bids last year during which 65 terrorists managed to sneak in while 136 were pushed back.
In 2013, there were 91 bids by 280 terrorists and 97 were able to slip past the army’s three-tiered counter-infiltration grid.
The recent spike in violence in the state came against the backdrop of a sharp downturn in relations between India and Pakistan following the cancellation of talks between the national security advisers in August.
India has insisted that Pakistan must address the issue of terrorism to create grounds for the resumption of bilateral talks.
Army colonel dies in gun battle with terrorists in Kashmir | india | Hindustan Times