Panipat: Supreme sacrifices of Colonel Manpreet Singh, Major Ashish Dhonak and police DSP Himayun Bhatt brought a pall of gloom to the family members, who are also proud of the acts of these martyrs.
All three laid down their lives in an encounter with terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir's Anantnag on Wednesday. The family members of Ashish Dhonak, a resident of Binjhaul village of Panipat, were even not aware of his demise. Major Dhanok was about to visit his home for a housewarming for his newly-built home.
As soon as the martyred army officer's kin received the information of his demise late in the evening from TV, they could not believe it. On the one hand, the family members were in shock at the demise of Ashish. On the one hand, they are proud that the army officer made the supreme sacrifice.
Also read: J&K: Two Army officers, DySP killed during encounter in Anantnag
Ashish Dhonak of Panipat was recruited as Lieutenant in 2012. His first posting was in Rajouri, before he was transferred to Meerut, Baramulla and Bhatinda, After being promoted to the rank of major in 2018, he was posted in Rajouri.
Ashish was born on October 22, 1987, to Lalchand and Kamala Devi, residents of Binjhaul village. Ashish's uncle said apart from being a good student, he was also interested in sports and was also a gold medalist in badminton.
Read more: J&K: Former top cop father salutes slain son defying grief and tears
Ashish's father, who worked with the NFL, left his village Binjal and started living in the NFL township. From 1998 to 2020, Ashish's family lived there. In 2012, Ashish was recruited as lieutenant.
According to his uncle, Ashish has been interested in joining the armed forces since childhood. Even when he was a small child, the slain official used to play with toy guns and loved to call himself a soldier.
Ashish's second uncle Dilawar's son Vikas was also recruited as Lieutenant before Ashish. Seeing him, Ashish also harboured the dream of becoming a lieutenant. He became a lieutenant in 2012. Ashish, the youngest of the three elder sisters, married Jyoti, a resident of Jind Urban Estate, in 2015. Ashish is survived by a two-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Vamika.
Ashish's neighbours said that despite holding such a high position, he lived a simple life. Whenever he would come to the village on leave, Ashish, who was respectful to elders, used to socialise with young ones to elders in the village.
Ashish's family members live in a rented house in Sector 7 of Panipat. Their newly built house is almost ready October 13 housewarming event. Ashish was supposed to come on leave for the occasion but destiny had other plans.
