Alert constable who thwarted fidayeen attack hailed as hero
Director General of Central Armed Police Force (CRPF) RR Bhatnagar on Monday hailed constable Raghunath Ghait of 23 Battalion who managed to thwart a fidayeen attack in Srinagar’s Karan Nagar area.
“We lost a soldier during the encounter but bravery of another soldier (Ghait) helped save many lives,” he told HT.
Ghait, 27, according to a senior paramilitary official, was alert at the main observation post of the CRPF camp in Srinagar when he saw two individuals dressed in army fatigue approach the facility.
Ghait first warned the intruders who did not seem to budge and then opened fire at the two.
“Both were armed and carrying a heavy rucksack. Once they were fired upon, they took position in a nearby building and our personnel chased the militants. The building was cordoned off and the encounter is currently under way,” said the senior paramilitary officer.
Ghait spoke briefly to HT over the phone and confirmed the sequence of events.
A CRPF constable Mujahid Khan of 49 battalion was killed in the subsequent gunfight that broke out between the paramilitary troopers and the militants, who, the DG said, seemed to have planned a fidayeen attack.
“We had already put all our units on high alert based on intelligence inputs that suggested an impending attack on the death anniversary of (separatist leader and the co-founder of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front) Maqbool Bhat,” he said.
SP Vaid, Director General of Jammu and Kashmir Police, said his office had forwarded intelligence inputs warning of possible fidayeen attacks in the first and second week of February. Bhat was hanged in 1984 while separatist leader Afzal Guru was hanged in 2001 in Tihar jail.
“The month of February marks the death anniversaries of both Afzal Guru and Maqbool Bhat. Hopefully, we will manage to thwart all acts that threaten to disturb law and order,” he said.