Three Officers, Including a Colonel, Killed in Kashmir

A FORCE Report

Two army officers, Colonel Manpreet Singh and Major Ashish Dhonak, and one deputy superintendent of Jammu & Kashmir police Humayun Bhat were killed in an encounter near south Kashmir’s Anantnag district on 13 September in one of the deadliest incidents in over a decade.

A day earlier, in another encounter in Jammu’s Rajouri district, an army Sepoy Vishal Kumar was killed and three, Subedar Surinder Singh, Naik Devender Singh, and Lance Naik Vikas Kumar, were injured, taking the total September toll to four. The two terrorists who had opened fire on the security personnel were killed. They were identified as Adil Hussain and Azad Khan, residents of Rajouri district.

There is speculation that the terrorists involved in the Anantnag encounter, had earlier engaged another military team on August 4, in which three soldiers had died. The search operations against them are ongoing. After a relatively peaceful summer, the sudden spurt in violence is a reminder that the situation is Kashmir remains volatile.