Abingdonboy
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2010
- Messages
- 29,597
- Reaction score
- 46
- Country
- Location
Ranchi, Dec. 5: Ranchi born and bred Lieutenant Colonel Sankalp Kumar (42), from the 24 Punjab Regiment, was among those who died fighting militants at Uri, Jammu and Kashmir, early this morning.
As the news of militant attack reached Kumar's residence at Krishna Nagar, about 15km from the capital in Sadar police station area, elderly resident Sushma Shukla fainted hearing her only son Sankalp was no more.
Breaking down, his father S.K. Shukla added: "As a soldier's father I am happy that he got an honourable death. I am proud of him."
Like Ranchi, Uri goes to polls in its third phase on December 9.
Uri apart, Tral and Shopian in South Kashmir were the other two sites of attack.
Today's militant attacks - in which eight armymen, three police personnel, six militants and two civilians lost their lives - is being termed as retaliation by separatist forces responding to the high turnout in earlier two phases in Jammu and Kashmir. Over 70 per cent voters had defied the separatists' poll boycott diktat to vote.
Retired engineer Shukla, who had worked in Central Coalfields Limited and Tata Steel, said Sankalp had come home during Durga Puja. "Last night, he talked to his mother as a matter of routine. This afternoon, I got information about his death from the Army Information Centre here," he said.
This wasn't the first time that Sankalp, an alumnus of St Xavier's School and St Xavier's College, had faced bullets.
"Encounters with terrorists was his routine work. In 2004, he sustained three bullets in his stomach. Terrorists had opened fire from AK-47s during that encounter in Srinagar. But, he had survived back then," the sobbing father told The Telegraph.
He added he was extremely worried about his wife's health. "She is not regaining consciousness since she heard the news. A doctor has examined her."
Punjab Regimental Centre chief Brigadier G.P.S. Sishodia, accompanied by other armymen, visited the martyr's home.
Brigadier Sishodia told The Telegraph that Sankalp's Patna-based wife Priya had already left for Delhi on a flight to receive the body. "It is expected that the body will reach by day after tomorrow," he said.
Sankalp has two school-going daughters, Manna and Shara.
Shukla's next-door neighbour N.C. Deogharia, also a retired army colonel, said they were all extremely happy when Sankalp was selected for the army through the combined defence service examination in 1999. "He lived and died like a real soldier," Deogharia said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Omar Abdullah have condemned the attack in the strongest terms. Modi called it "desperate attempts to derail the atmosphere of hope and goodwill as seen by increased voter turnout."
The army has called the attack a "suicide mission".
Hero's death for Ranchi officer
