जम्मू-काश्मीरमधील पुलवामा येथे जिल्हा पोलीस क्वार्टरवर झालेल्या दहशतवादी हल्ल्यात ४ सीआरपीएफ जवानांसहित ८ जवान शहीद झाले आहेत. दहशतवाद्यांशी दोन हात करताना शहीद झालेल्या या जवानांमध्ये साताऱ्याचे सुपुत्र रवींद्र धनावडे यांचाही समावेश आहे. या हल्ल्यात इतर ५ जवान जखमी झाले आहेत. दहशतवाद्यांनी पोलीस क्वार्टर्सवर केलेला हल्ला हा या वर्षातील सर्वात मोठा हल्ला मानण्यात येत आहे.
दहशतवादी जिल्हा पोलीस क्वार्टर्समध्ये घुसल्यानंतर त्याना बाहेर काढण्यासाठी सुरक्षा दलाने मोठी कारवाई सुरू केली. या हल्ल्यात ३ दहशतवादी ठार झाले आहेत. पैकी दोन दहशतवाद्यांचे शव ताब्यात घेण्यात आले आहेत. तिसऱ्या शवाचा शोध सुरू आहे.
दुपारपासून सुरू झालेली परिसरातील गोळीबार सध्या थांबवण्यात आला आहे अशी माहिती लष्करी अधिकाऱ्यांनी दिली आहे. शोध सुरू असलेल्या तिसऱ्या दहशतवाद्याचे शव लवकरच ताब्यात घेण्यात येईल असे अधिकाऱ्याने म्हटले आहे. शहिद झालेल्या जवानांमध्ये ४ सीआरपीएफचे जवान आहेत, तर एक जम्मू-काश्मीर पोलीस विभागाचा जवान आहे. या व्यतिरिक्त या दहशतवादी हल्ल्यात विशेष पोलीस दलाचे ३ जवानही शहीद झाले आहेत. सीआरपीएफचे दोन जवान आयईडी निकामी करत असताना शहीद झाले असल्याचे वृत्त आहे.
लष्कराने या कारवाईबाबत माहिती देताना सांगितले की, पोलीस क्वार्टरमधून सर्वच कुटुंबांना सुरक्षित बाहेर काढण्यात आले आहे. या ठिकाणी ओलीस ठेवल्यासारखा कोणताही प्रकार झाला नसल्याचे लेफ्टनंट जनरल जे. एस. संधू यांनी स्पष्ट केले आहे. हा हल्ला आत्मघातकी हल्ला असल्याचेही म्हटले आहे. हे हल्लेखोर परदेशी असल्याचेही ते म्हणाले.
या बाबत पोलीस सूत्रांनी दिलेल्या माहितीनुसार, दहशतवाद्यांनी सुरक्षा चौक्यांवर ग्रेनेड फेकले आणि त्यानंतर गोळीबार सुरू केला. या हल्ल्यात पोलीस हवालदार इम्तियाज अहमद शेख शहीद झाल्याचे वृत्त आहे.
सुरक्षा दलासाठी आजचा दिवस अत्यंत दु:खद दिवस असल्याचे राज्याचे पोलीस महासंचालक एस. पी. वैद्य यांनी म्हटले आहे. आमचे मोठे नुकसान झाले असून आमच्या जवानांनी मोठ्या धैर्याने दहशतवाद्यांचा मुकाबला केला असेही ते म्हणाले. राज्यातील दहशतवाद संपवण्यासाठी आम्ही वचनबद्ध आहोत असेही ते पुढे म्हणाले.
दरम्यान, अधिकाऱ्यांनी जिल्ह्यातील मोबाइल इंटरनेट सेवा खंडित केली आहे.Out of the 8 deceased security personnel, 4 each were part of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu & Kashmir Police.
Srinagar, August 26: In the ongoing gun battle in South Kashmir’s Pulwama, a total of 8 security personnel have been killed, whereas, 2 terrorists have been neutralised.
The gun battle erupted in the wee hours of Saturday, after the militants launched open fire at the security forces stationed at the Pulwama.
Out of the 8 deceased security personnel, 4 each were part of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Jammu & Kashmir Police.
J&K Director General of Police S P Vaid, while speaking to ANI in the evening, said the encounter is in the final stages and expected to concluded shortly.
JS Sandhu, Lt Gen, speaking to news agency ANI said, “We lost a J&K police constable and two CRPF jawans after terrorists opened fire at the District Police Lines in Pulwama.”
The encounter began at around 4.30 am in which three CRPF personnel were injured, along with a J&K Police personnel. SP Vaid, J&K DGP informed ANI that operation will come to an end soon as it is in its last lap.
As the operation began, security forces rescued nearly two dozen families staying there to avoid any hostage situation. However, two special police officers were still missing.”In the early hours this morning, terrorists entered the District Police Lines (DPL) Pulwama and they entered the family quarters. There were a lot of families there.
“In the initial action, we lost J-K police constable and two CRPF personnel,” General Officer Commanding (GoC) of Srinagar-based Chinar Corps, Lt Gen J S Sandhu, told reporters here. It is a “fidayeen” (suicide) attack, he said, adding it was too early to ascertain the identity of the militants. The GoC said while a few police personnel were still inside one of the blocks of the DPL, there was no hostage situation.
“No, we do not have a hostage situation in Pulwama. There were families in those blocks, but we have taken them out and right now, the terrorists are there. In one of the blocks, there are a few policemen, but that is all. We will be able to handle it,” he said.
A police official said that one of the militants came out of a building and fired indiscriminately during the encounter. “He was gunned down on the spot. His body is lying near a building,” the official said.
“The firing is coming from three directions, indicating that there might be three more militants holed up in those buildings,” the official said, adding para commandos have been pressed into action. The official also said all the families of the police personnel have been evacuated from the premises and there was no hostage situation.
The authorities have suspended mobile internet services in the district as a precautionary measure.
A true life war zone incident of a lady Doctor of the Indian Army, her story of grit and Hippocrates Oath that Doctors serve under, even if a General has to be disciplined in the process .
It was a biting cold, late winter evening in Jan 2004, at Baramula - a border town with the notorious and well-deserved reputation for being the hub of terrorism in North Kashmir. I was the GOC of the Division Headquartered there. It was past the witching hour and I must have dozed off in the first interlude of sleep in an active, 18 hour day when I got a call on the phone. The operator displayed his urgency by prefacing the call as Urgent "IED phata hai, Sahib. Capt Devika Gupta aap se baat karna chahti hain. MI Room se bol rahi hain..."
Kashmir sleep with their weapons and I was no different. In two minutes, I was in uniform. The QRT was ready too and we were racing out of the GOC's Bungalow nestling on the banks of the River Jhelum. The MI Room was close by and when I arrived, there was subdued activity. The RR soldier was part of a Unit crossing Baramula for a night domination patrol when he had stepped on an IED disguised as a transistor. His intestines had spilt out and his team had rushed him to the MI Room, where the Medical Officer, Capt Devika Gupta her hands encased in bloodied white gloves right up to her shoulders started stitching him skillfully to stop his intense bleeding. It was touch and go!
My staff had reacted fast and placed a Armoured Car - a South African made mine proof bullet proof Casiper and a duty Gurkha QRT to escort the lady doctor and patient to the Base Hospital at Srinagar 60 kms away if that was needed. All Standard Operating Procedure during my time as GOC.
Capt Dipika told me on arrival, "Sir, It is touch and go. Have put almost 150 stitches on him. He has to reach the ICU at Srinagar for immediate operating as his vitals are collapsing. I need to monitor him and hold a drip otherwise he will die on my hands. Need an open jeep, not this “cramped tank". She called the narrow ceilinged Casiper that was meant for war, not casualty evacuation.
It was past 1 AM now and the Baramula-Pattan road was notorious for terrorist fire on our convoys because the road was cut through low hills and gullies near Pattan, a very trouble prone area. I was the GOC and was morally responsible for any orders I gave. In this case, I felt that she had to go in a Casiper if she was not to lose the patients and her life in an ambulance Gypsy and told her the same in no uncertain terms.
Generals are trained to anticipate trouble and the moment I said what I had to and my men started jumping to respond, a quiet, firm, authoratative voice intervened. "Just a minute General sir" That was Capt Devika in a voice that wasn't hers, so my mind registered. She was dressed in a blood spattered Green military Sari and had just got up from her stitching of the soldiers abdomen. She was actually just five feet tall, petite, well-mannered, very good in her job but for some reason, when she pulled herself up and snapped her beret on over her short hair that dark night, with about 50 odd soldiers and officers watching, she seemed to me to be taller than I.. She was!
She walked up to me close enough for me to see her angry, flashy, blazing eyes. "Sir whose the GOC?" "Have you any doubt?" I asked her. No, she said, "I have no doubt. Now tell me, who is the doctor whose treating the soldier?" I understood. GOC's aren't stupid. Anyone would understand and I certainly did. "Sir, the boy is my patient. Do not interfere. If you do, you will carry the responsibility for his death. I will carry him in the open Gypsy, NOT the Casiper. If I die, my husband will grieve for me. You need not bother (he was a Medical Specialist at the Base Hospital, a great lad whom I had met at the BH while looking up my wounded soldiers)...and sir, you can later court martial me if you wish but let me go now".
With all my men waiting for my reaction at being "dressed down" by this chit of a girl with three years service to my 36 years. I did the only thing any officer and gentleman would have in a war zone. I saluted her.
"Capt Devika, I am sorry I interfered. Go. God is with you". There were at least two people hiding their tears that dark night and she was just one of them.
The drama had yet not unfolded. At Pattan, the area I was most worried about, one of her Gurkha escort vehicles broke down at about 2.30 AM. The brave gutsy doctor asked her escort to catch up after repairing the broken down vehicle and proceeded the last 30 kilometers unescorted in her open Gypsy.. Unescorted by other than her courage and God who was with her!
On the terror grid, no one is given special privileges, man or woman as everyone is committed to specific jobs so it was with enormous relief when Devika called me up at 4.30 AM. "Sir, the soldier has been operated upon and will make it. I joined in the operation.. It is Sunday. Can I have half a day off? You are aware I am 6 months pregnant and my hubby has arranged for my term tests"
That morning I called up the Corps Commander. The Army Commander was in station and was spoken to. So was the Chief! Three days later, she was awarded the Chief of Army Staff's Commendation Card for her heroism and devotion to duty.. a rare honour!
Months later this Tigress had delivered a baby. A child who would one day hear about a great, fiesty Mum. A woman who sorted out a protective General and won!
When some of my peers say or write that women are not suited for the Uniform, I react very strongly in their favour because the women I have seen and interacted with were Tigresses to the core. They are as lean, mean & keen as any man. Walk the same walk!
Hats off to the Tigresses in Olive Green
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