Rajouri/Jammu, Nov 24: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Northern Army Commander Lieutenant General Upendra Dwivedi, along with army officers and police, solemnly paid floral tributes to the five soldiers who lost their lives in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri district.
The mortal remains of the five army personnel were transported to the Army General Hospital in Jammu from Rajouri, where a wreath-laying ceremony was conducted. In attendance were Sinha, Lt Gen Dwivedi, Chief Secretary Dr A K Mehta, DGP R R Swain, Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar, and IGP Anand Jain, among numerous armed forces, civilians, and police officials who honored the martyred soldiers with full military honors.
The soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice in the fight against terrorists were Captain M V Pranjal (63 RR) from Mangalore, Karnataka; Captain Shubham Gupta (9 Para) from Agra, Uttar Pradesh; Havaldar Abdul Majid (Para) from Ajote in Poonch, Jammu and Kashmir; Lance Naik Sanjay Bist from Halli Padli, Nainital, Uttarakhand; and Paratrooper Sachin Laur from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh.
The coffins, draped in the tricolor, will be airlifted from Jammu to their respective hometowns for the final rites. The encounter in the Bajimaal area of Darmsal resulted in the killing of two terrorists, including a top Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) commander trained in Afghanistan, and five soldiers, including two captains, during a 36-hour-long gunfight with security forces on Wednesday and Thursday.
Captain Pranjal is survived by his wife Aditi G, while Captain Gupta leaves behind his father Basant Kumar Gupta. Havaldar Majid is survived by his wife Sagera Bi and three children, while Lance Naik Bisht and Paratrooper Laur leave behind their mothers Manju Devi and Bhagvati Devi, respectively.
