Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 14: No one will normally refuse a peace posting and lead an easy and comfortable life, but Indian soldiers are of different breed. Colonel Manpreet Singh refused a peace posting in 2021 to stay with his men in the 19 Rashtriya Rifles and in the hunt for terrorists in the difficult terrains of Jammu and Kashmir and paid with his life on Wednesday.
“No Sir” was his prompt reply when he was offered a peace posting upon his promotion in 2021. Instead, he volunteered to stay and command the 19 Rashtriya Rifles, a battalion credited with major kills of terrorists including Hizbul Mujahideen poster boy Burhan Wani.
40-Year old Col Singh, who is survived by his wife, a six-year-old son and a two-year-old daughter, was a combat veteran and was awarded Sena Medal during his tenure as second-in-command of the 19 Rashtriya Rifles, a battalion tasked with ensuring security in South Anantnag, Kokernag and Verinag Achabal including its higher reaches, which have been highly infested with terrorists especially foreign mercenaries in the past.
Col Singh, Major Aashish Dhonchak, Deputy Superintendent of Jammu and Kashmir Police Humayun Bhat and another soldier were the four casualties Indian security forces suffered in their encounter with terrorists on Wednesday in the higher reaches of Kokernag in Anantnag district. One soldier is still missing.
Col Singh always wanted to lead from the front and the reason generally given by him was “I have to ensure that every one under my command is safe.” A sports enthusiast, Col Singh always believed in uplift of youth and engaged them in sports activities.
Major Dhonchak, 34, who had a close brush with death only a month ago, is remembered as an enthusiastic officer who used to go into the nitty-gritty of every operation.
On August 10, Major Dhonchak and his team were participating in a cordon and search operation in the Athlan Gadole area of Kokernag when terrorists threw a grenade injuring three people including a soldier. “This time he ran out of luck…,” recalls one of the officers known to the fallen braveheart. Major Dhonchak was awarded with Sena Medal only last month on the eve of Independence Day.
He had just finally managed to fulfil every middle-class Indian’s dream to have his own house and a three-storey house is standing ready in Haryana’s Panipat, waiting for him and his family to move from their rented apartment. The housewarming party was supposed to happen on his birthday, October 23, but Major Aashish Dhonchak will never get to live in the new house.
The construction of Major Dhonchak’s house, in Sector 7 of Panipat, was finished recently and he had told his friends and family that he would come home on October 13 and they would have a grand party to celebrate the medal, his birthday and the housewarming on October 23.
The excited officer had told his wife, two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, parents and his three sisters that they would all live together in the three-storey structure after October 23. His distraught family members are now preparing the house to receive his body, which will reach Panipat on Friday morning.
Major Dhonchak’s brother-in-law, Suresh said “I spoke to Aashish after he got the Sena Medal and he told me ‘the country now has fewer enemies’. He spoke to his sister on Tuesday. The new house is ready and they hadn’t shifted because Aashish had said he wanted to buy some things for the house himself. The housewarming was planned for his birthday, October 23,” said Suresh.
“He told his sister that he had to go for a search operation and that he would call two-four hours later. But he never called. Someone from his unit called us on Wednesday afternoon and said that he was badly injured after a gunfight. We thought he would recover. In the night, we found out from media reports that he had died,” he added.
Humayun Muzamil Bhat, son of retired Inspector General of J&K Police Ghulam Hassan Bhat, had become a father just a month ago. On Tuesday night, the army and police had launched a joint operation in response to specific intelligence about terrorists in the area. The troops, led by the commanding officer and the deputy superintendent of police, came under heavy fire from the terrorists.
Three officers were critically injured in the gun battle. Reinforcements were sent to the scene, but the injured could not be immediately evacuated due to the terrorists’ well-entrenched position and heavy gunfire.
Ghulam Hassan Bhat laid a wreath on his son’s body in Kashmir’s Budgam. His stoic demeanour did not betray his devastation. In just five years of service with the J&K Police, Humayun Bhat handled extremely difficult tasks including his tenure in the Special Operations Group that deals exclusively with anti-terrorist operations.
