New Delhi: An Army captain who was injured in a barrage of gunfire as he confronted militants in the woods of Assar in Jammu and Kashmir’s eastern Doda district on Tuesday evening succumbed in a military hospital early Wednesday, the officials said. Later during the day, the troops gunned down one of the militants, they added.
Meanwhile, the other militants are being chased by the special forces who are part of reinforcements from the Army, J&K police’s counterinsurgency Special Operations group (SOG) and the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) rushed to the area overnight.
The officials had earlier said that one militant is believed to have been injured in the initial exchange of fire with troops. “The presence of bloodstains along a hill track indicate that, at least, one of them was bleeding after the injury occurred,” said a police official who spoke with this correspondent privately.
The militants are reported to have fled into the dense forest and, as was claimed by the security officials, left behind an US-made M4 carbine and other ‘war like stores’.
The Army said Captain Deepak Singh of the 48 Rashtriya Rifles led his men from the front to combat what is said are ‘highly trained and heavily equipped Pakistan-backed terrorists’ spotted in the wooded hills late Tuesday afternoon. "On receiving the information about the presence of terrorists in the area, a column of the Army was quickly moved in. Captain Deepak led from the front and was the third person behind scouts when the search operation began. Despite receiving more than one gunshot wounds, he kept directing his men as long as he could,” said an Army officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The Indian Army’s Nagrota (Jammu)-based 16 Corps-also called White Knight Corps- said in a post on ‘X,’ “Op Assar: Update Search for the terrorists continues amidst heavy firefight. One officer has been injured while leading the search party. War-like stores have been recovered as operations continue.”
In another post, while confirming the death of the injured officer, it said “All Ranks of White Knight Corps salute the supreme sacrifice of Braveheart Captain Deepak Singh who succumbed to his injuries. White Knight Corps offers deepest condolences and stands firm with the bereaved family in this hour of grief.”
The White Knight Corps took to the microblogging site again in the evening to inform that one militant had been killed. It said, “Op ASSAR Update: One terrorist has been neutralised in the ongoing operation. One AK 47 has been recovered in addition to the M4 rifle. Intermittent exchange of firing continues as the operations are ongoing”. It added, “A significant cache of arms and ammunition has been recovered from the operation site, so far, along with four rucksacks. The operation underscores the Indian Army’s resolve to secure the area and neutralize all threats.”
In New Delhi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh convened an important meeting on the “rising” terror-related incidents in J&K. The official sources said that Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi, Director General of Military Operations-Lieutenant General Pratik Sharma and heads of the security-related agencies attended the meeting being held at South Block.
