Srinagar/New Delhi: The Indian Air Force lost two “Garud” commandos in a firefight with militants in Jammu and Kashmir’s Bandipore district on Wednesday. This was the first hit suffered by the Garuds in the Kashmir militancy.
The two Garuds — Sergeant Milind Kishor and Corporal Nilesh Kumar — were on “live situational training” when they were killed in a fierce encounter in the Hajin area of Bandipore.
Two militants, including a Pakistani national, were also killed.
J&K villagers, security forces clash post-attack
Kishor hailed from Sakri town in Nashik while Kumar came from Udhadih in Bihar’s Bhagalpur.
“Live situational training” involves “on the job” training with the Garuds learning to combat militants in a real-life scenario, a concept that germinated in the aftermath of the Pathankot airbase attack in January 2016, after four heavily-armed Pakistan-trained terrorists infiltrated into the high-security airbase that is home to high-value IAF assets.
Army and police officials said a joint party of the Army’s 13 Rashtriya Rifles and J&K police’s counter-insurgency Special Operations Group laid siege to Paribal Rakh area of Hajin, about 40 km from Srinagar, after a tipoff about the presence of at least six Lashkar-e-Tayyaba militants holding a meeting in the area.
“They (militants) were asked to stop and surrender but they opened fire and lobbed a grenade, in which one Garud commando achieved martyrdom on the spot and another was seriously injured. Later he too succumbed,” the statement said.
Two AK rifles, one pistol with 19 rounds of ammunition, one grenade, two pouches and other ammunition were seized from the encounter site.
The Army said in a statement that “befitting” tributes were paid to the two IAF martyrs at a wreath-laying ceremony at Srinagar’s Badami Bagh cantonment, home of the 15 (Chinar) Corps.
The area saw intense clashes between surging crowds and the security forces after the killing of militants. Witnesses said irate mobs hurled rocks and missiles on security personnel after the authorities refused to hand over the corpse of the foreign militant to them for burial.
The police fired dozens of teargas canisters to disperse the stone-hurling mobs, they said.
