Captured soldier’s grandmother dies

Lilabai Patil, grandmother of Chandu Chavan from Dhule, died on Friday after hearing that the 22-yearold Indian Army soldier is in the custody of Pakistani army for straying across the across the Line of Control (LOC) after Wednesday’s surgical strikes, according to reports on Marathi news channel IBN Lokmat.

Chavan, who hails from Borvihir village, had joined the Army in 2012. He was deployed with the Rashtriya Rifles battalion 36 and was posted at Poonch on the India-Pakistan border. Another report in Sakal Times said Patil died of cardiac arrest after she heard news of his capture.