An Army colonel was killed and a captain wounded in fresh incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir’s frontier districts of Kupwara and Poonch. In Kupwara’s picturesque Lolab valley, the militants ambushed a group of soldiers late on Tuesday night resulting into the death of Colonel Neeraj Sood, who was the Commanding
Officer of 18 Rashtriya Rifles shifted to the area falling close to the Line of Control after being promoted about twenty months ago. He had earlier served as a major and was posted at Khrew near Srinagar where also he “effectively participated several anti militancy operations,” said a defence spokesperson here. According to him, Col. Sood, 37, was heading a column of the Army which had laid ambush for militants in Tsai Wan woods near Dar Mohalla of Lolab during the intervening night of June 22 and 23. The officer received a call on his mobile phone and as soon as the light flashed on its screen, he was shot. He was immediately shifted to the Army Hospital at neighbouring Drugmulla but succumbed to his injuries soon. His body was flown to New Delhi on Wednesday. He is survived by his wife and 11-year-old daughter, the spokesperson said.
Meanwhile, Army reinforcements were rushed to Lolab to launch a massive manhunt for the militants. Officials said that immediately after Col. Sood was shot, the soldiers under his command returned fire in which two militants are believed to have been injured. But they and their accomplices fled the area taking advantage of darkness. Local police officials on condition of anonymity said they are checking the veracity of an earlier report which had suggested that Col. Sood fell victim to “mistaken identity.”
In Poonch, Captain Kikil Bismit was seriously injured when the Army’s forward post he was posted at came under a militant attack on Tuesday evening.