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| 6 DIGs, Brigadiers killed in 20 years of J&K militancy | | |
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Nov 18: Army’s brigade commanders and Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs) of Police and paramilitary forces are the highest ranking officials killed by separatist militants in 20 years of armed insurgency in Jammu & Kashmir. While as Army has suffered the loss of 3 Brigadiers, followed by 2 DIGs of the paramilitary Border Security Force (BSF), one-odd DIG of Jammu & Kashmir Police (JKP) was eliminated in a broad daylight shootout when he was coming out of a mosque in this capital city after performing his prayers on occasion of Idd-ul-azha five years ago.
Death of BSF’s DIG Provisioning and incharge Sector Commander in Samba-Ramnagar border belt in Jammu, Om Prakash Tanwar, on Monday last was the 6th fatal casualty in this category of high ranking officers in Police and armed forces in Jammu & Kashmir since eruption of the secessionist insurgency in 1988-89. DIG Tanwar’s vehicle was blown up by suspected militants, with possible support of regular forces on the International Border, in a landmine blast when senior officials of the force were conducting an inspection of the area following an attempt of infiltration by a group of militants. His subordinate Commanding Officer of a battalion had a providential escape as he had reportedly come out of the vehicle yards short of the death trap.
Brigadier Sreedhar of Baramulla-based 19th Infantry Division, who was commander of a Brigade, with its headquarters in Uri, was the first seniormost officer of armed forces who was eliminated much like DIG Tanwar in an equally powerful landmine blast close to LoC in Uri sector in March 1995.
The second fatal casualty occurred on 13th July, 1999, when militants introduced suicide strikes against armed forces in Jammu & Kashmir with a fidayeen attack on BSF’s headquarters of Sector-11 at Madar near Bandipore in north-east of the Valley. Sector Commander, DIG S K Chakravarty and Joint Assistant Director (G) Mohan Raj, Sub Inspector Bhaskar were among four BSF officials in the unprecedented gunbattle. A special contingent of National Security Guards (NSG) commandoes was flown in for the operation from New Delhi in addition to senior BSF officials, Army’s Marine Commandoes (Marcos) and different units of Army and BSF that participated in the 70-hour-long encounter with militants.
The suicide attack on the BSF camp in Bandipore, in which three militants also got killed, happened in the thick of Kargil War. J&K has till date witnessed nearly 80 fidayeen attacks on different camps of Army, BSF, CRPF, JKP besides non-military installations likeTourist Reception Srinagar, Passport Office Srinagar, Press Information Bureau complex Srinagar, Income Tax complex Srinagar, Radio Kashmir Srinagar, Raghunath Mandir Jammu and Railway Station Jammu.
Making an inspection of Sector-7 area in Kupwara district just three days after his joining at Drugmulla, Brig B S Shergil became the third major target of militants when they blew up his vehicle in an IED blast on Zachaldara-Handwara Road in then militant-infested Rajwar belt in north Kashmir on 21st August, 2000. He was killed alongwith three other Army officials accompanying him. They included Commanding Officer of Rashtriya Rifles 21 Bn, Col Rajinder Chauhan, who was under transfer and was on the last tour of his area of operation.
Armed forces in J&K suffered the worst ever damage when as many as 8 Army officials, including Brig V K Govil of 16 Corps, got killed in a suicide strike by militants on EME camp, Bangti (Tanda), on Akhnoor-Tanda Road, in Jammu division on 22nd July 2003. Senior Army commanders, including then General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Northern Command, Lt Gen Hari Prasad, Commander of Nagrota-based 16 Corps, Lt Gen T P S Brar, two Major Generals D Khanna and T K Sapru, Brigadier Baldev Singh of 10 RT Brigade and two more officers of the rank of Colonel had sustained injuries in this strike as one of the militants hiding behind Sarkanda grass blew himself up close to his targets.
Jammu and Kashmir Police has suffered the first and the last fatal casualty in this category of senior officers when militants gunned down DIG Crime & Railways, Mohammad Amin Bhat, in point blank range at Barzulla in Srinagar on 2nd February, 2004. On leave because of Idd-ul-Azha, DIG Bhat was unarmed and in his civvies when he was killed like a lame duck. As he was coming out of a mosque after performing his prayers on the day of Idd, two unidentified militants fired upon him, killing him on the spot.
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