Srinagar:
Just 24 hours after he was awarded a gallantry medal for his service in Kashmir, Colonel Munindra Nath Rai was killed while leading an operation against terrorists in a village in south Kashmir's Pulwama district. Colonel Rai, 39, is the highest-ranking military officer to be killed in fighting in the region in nearly a year.
A policeman, Sanjeev Singh, and two terrorists were also killed in the encounter in what the army described as an intense gun battle in Mindora village.
Col Rai is from Mirzapur in UP. He was the commanding officer of the 42 Rashtriya Rifles, an infantry regiment.
This morning he received intelligence inputs that terrorists were hiding in a house in the area and he rushed with a quick reaction team or QRT, a small team of eight to 12. A local SOG (Special Operations Group) of the Jammu and Kashmir Police also accompanied them.
Army sources said that when Col Rai's team reached the house and cordoned it off, the residents, suspected to be relatives of the terrorists, requested them not to carry out an full-scale operation, as that would entail sequestering the entire village.
As the Colonel was working out the details with the residents, two terrorists rushed out firing blindly. Col Rai was hit in the temple and fatally wounded and the SoG personnel was killed. The radio operator, who shot down the two terrorists, was injured.
The Colonel died in hospital.
An officer of the 9 Gurkhas, Col Rai won the Yudh Seva Medal yesterday for killing a foreign terrorist in a close battle last year. The Yudh Seva Medal or YSM is awarded for the highest degree of distinguished service in a war or conflict.
His fellow officers knew him as a brave soldier who always led from the front. He is survived by his wife and three children.