Five Indian Special Forces personnel and five militants were killed in a fierce gun battle between the forces and a terrorist group that had infiltrated from across the Line of Control (LoC) in Keran sector of north Kashmir, officials said in Srinagar late on Sunday, 5 April.
The five men of the elite 4 Para (SF) killed in action have been identified as Subedar Sanjeev Kumar and Paratrooper Bal Krishan from Himachal Pradesh, Havildar Davendra Singh and Paratrooper Amit Kumar from Uttarakhand, and Paratrooper Chhatrapal Singh from Rajasthan, according to LiveFistDefence.com
A Srinagar-based defence spokesperson had earlier said that three army personnel had fallen to the bullets of the militants in the higher reaches of Keran, which falls under Kupwara district.
However, later, the officials said that the number of soldiers killed in the gun battle was five and an equal number of terrorists had also been killed in the operation that had been going since the intervening night of 3 and 4 April.
The terrorists are believed to have entered the Indian territory from Shamsabari range and were hiding in 'Gujjar Dhok' (temporary shelter for nomads) in the Poswal area of the sector.
Speaking to ANI, an Indian Army Special Forces soldier who took part in the operation explained the encounter.
“Two squads were airlifted to the Rangdouri Behak region in Keran sector. Once we reached there, we realised that the snow cover was all the way to our chest. So, we took half an hour to cross that zone,” said the soldier.
“After that we continued tracking and following the terrorists. The entire process took us 4 to 5 hours but once we tracked them down we started shooting at them.”
“Meanwhile, the terrorists jumped in a ‘nallah’. There were two cornersand we immediately took our position. On one corner it was our squad and on the other side we had JCO Subedar Sanjeev Kumar’s squad,” the soldier added.
“While we were sitting there, two commandos from Sanjeev saab’s squad slipped and slid down. To save then Sanjeev ‘saab’ also jumped which ensured in a stand-off between him and the terrorists,” the Special Forces recollected.
“While Sanjeev ‘saab’ killed a terrorist another squad member jumped in to rescue him. While they were not sure whether all terrorists were dead or not, there were two terrorists who were still alive. The terrorists managed to fire at them. But the commandos made sure that they shot them down,” he added.
“Unfortunately, in the morning we found Sanjeev saab’s body near one of the terrorists.”
Two soldiers succumbed to their injuries while being airlifted to Srinagar’s Army hospital on Sunday. The other three commandos where found near the terrorists.
The 4 Para (Special Forces) is the unit of Army that undertook the 2016 surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir where 38 terrorists were killed.
(With inputs from PTI and LiveFistDefence.com & ANI)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)