Army pays homage to Kupwara’s slain heroes
The Army on Friday paid glowing tribute with full military honours to Captain Ayush Yadav and two other soldiers who laid down their lives while fighting militants during a “fidayeen” attack at their camp in Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier district of Kupwara a day earlier.
Homage was paid to the “valour and sacrifice’ of Capt. Yadav, Subedar Bhoop Singh Gurjar and Naik Botta Venkata Ramana in a solemn ceremony held at Badami Bagh Cantonment, the headquarters of Army’s 15 (Chinar) Corps, defence spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.
Twenty-six-year-old Capt. Yadav, the only son of a UP police inspector, was a native of Kanpur. Subedar Gurjar, 46, was a resident of Kherla Bujore village of Dausa district in Rajasthan and Naik Ramana, 38, that of Arivanipallam village in Vizag district of Andhra Pradesh.
They were killed in a pre-dawn “fidayeen” attack at the artillery headquarters of the 155 Field Regiment at Panzgam, about 80 km northwest of here, on Thursday. Five other soldiers were injured whereas two militants were shot dead by Naik Rishi Kumar even after he had been hit by a bullet in the head.
The third militant involved in the attack escaped and the Army has launched a massive search operation in the area to get him dead or alive, officials said.
Soon after the attack, protests by locals were held in nearby villages of Panzgam and Kralapora. The Army opened fire at the protesters who were demanding the corpses of slain militants, killing one person. Ten others were injured in the firing and during the clashes.
The defence spokesman said that joined by the officials from civil administration and other security forces, the Chinar Corps Commander Lt. Gen. J.S. Sandhu paid tributes to the slain soldiers in Friday’s ceremony.