'Oh really!' Col Sharma when told about ‘trapped’ militant Haider in Handwara

In this article, senior journalist Sanjib Kr Baruah writes about the Handwara encounter that killed as many as five security personnel. He also mentions about the last messaged which Col Ashutosh Sharma had typed on being informed about the 'trapped' militant Haider.

New Delhi: "Oh really!" Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, commanding officer of the 21 Rashtriya Rifles (RR), had typed in his phone in one of his last text messages exchanged with a colleague even when Saturday evening’s encounter was going on.

He punched in the casual remark on being informed of the possibility that one of the militants trapped inside the house in Handwara’s Chanjmulla locality may be ‘Haider’, "who had escaped the clutches of the state police for about 15 times in the last two years."

The attitude was typical for the officer whose WhatsApp status read (loosely translated from Hindi): “Don’t test my courage for I have weathered and warded off many a storm.”

By all indications, the joint counter-terror operation on a rainy Saturday evening comprising the Army, the paramilitary CRPF and the Jammu and Kashmir police started on a good note even as it unfolded.

But the price the security establishment had to pay in the end proved undesirably high.

Read:Col killed in Handwara was a two-time gallantry awardee for counter-terrorist ops

Five soldiers—Colonel Sharma, Major Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh Kumar, Lance Naik Dinesh Singh and J&K Police’s Sub-Inspector Sageer Ahmed Qazi Pathan—made the supreme sacrifice when they fell to militants’ bullets.

It had all the ingredients of a well-planned operation. The very fact that the counter-insurgency specialist force RR, CRPF, and the Special Operations Group (SOG) of the state police to which SI Pathan belonged, were all part of the operation implied several things—good inter-agency coordination, actionable intelligence, presence of militants, known target area and location.

The only thing that wasn’t known was the exact number of militants and which was to prove costly in the end.

According to informed sources, two militants were initially detected inside the house after 5 PM. The second time ‘contact’ was made was at about 6 PM.

That was when the joint team started firing at the house with grenade launchers and anti-material rifles bringing parts of the structure down.

Read:J&K: 16-hour standoff ends, Army CO, Major among 5 killed in gunfight

Possibly presuming that the two militants were dead, the five soldiers moved inside the target area only to be gunned down by more militants who may have escaped under the cover of darkness in the heavily jungled mountainous terrain.

The supporting forces lay in wait for hours as there was ‘silence’ from Col Sharma and the others amid the possibility that direct communications could have impeded the operation.

Many Colonels of the Indian Army had laid down their lives while fighting militants in Kashmir including commanding officers of RR battalions. It underlines the fact that Indian Army officers lead their men from the front.

Usually, Colonel is the highest rank that is involved in tactical operations directly in the field.

On the two bodies of militants found inside, one has been identified as 'Haider' from the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) while the identity of the other militant is yet to be known.

Handwara, in north Kashmir, is known to be an operational area for the Pakistan-based LeT which infiltrates its militants from across the Line of Control (LoC). Usually, LeT militants are either Pakistani Punjabis or Kashmiris from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.