Just a day after he was named for a gallantry medal on Republic Day, Colonel Munindra Nath Rai, Commanding Officer of 42 Rashtriya Rifles, died in a fierce gun battle with militants in a village falling under Tral tehsil of Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir. A Head Constable of the counter-insurgency wing of the police and two Hizbul Mujahideen militants too were killed in the encounter.
The encounter occurred shortly after Abid Ahmad Khan, reportedly “district commander” of the Hizbul outfit in Pulwama, arrived at Handoora Village to meet his parents. He was accompanied by his associate Shiraz Ahmad Dar, a baker, who joined militant ranks last year after stealing an automatic rifle from a policeman he had intentionally befriended.
Sources said that on receiving an “unsubstantiated” report about Abid Khan’s presence in the village, Col Rai gathered a small raiding party, including personnel of the counter-insurgency wing of J&K Police to head for Handoora, located around 12 kilometers from his camp. After cordoning off Khan’s house, the officer sent a local man inside to ask the militants to surrender.
Shortly after the man came out of the house, the militants opened a volley of fire on the security personnel waiting in the courtyard. The unexpected shower of bullets left Col Rai and Head Constable Sanjeevan Singh of Indian Reserve Police critically wounded.
The security forces immediately took positions and neutralized both militants in an encounter that lasted less than ten minutes. Sources said that Col Rai, a resident of Varanasi and recipient of Yudh Seva Medal, was in pursuit of Khan for many months and had conducted half-a-dozen operations to get him. Khan, son of a Head Constable was involved in a number of attacks on security forces during the last three years.
Rai and Singh were immediately shifted from the encounter site and airlifted to 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar where they succumbed to their injuries.Police said that two AK series rifles, one grenade, two magazine pouches and four ammunition magazines were recovered from the encounter site.
A large number of local people chanting “azaadi” slogans gathered at the encounter site to claim the bodies as a spontaneous shutdown was observed in Tral and the villages in vicinity. Police said Abid and Shiraz’s death is a major blow to militants in South Kashmir.