By IANS,
Samba (Jammu and Kashmir) : “Enough is enough,” Aziz Mohammed declared before barging into a house in Jammu and Kashmir where two militants had been hiding after killing three people. The soldier lost his life but brought a daylong gun battle to an end.
“Bahut ho gaya (enough is enough),”Mohammed of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (Jakli), said before entering the house in Samba, about 45 km from Jammu, Sunday evening.
A hail of bullets from the one remaining militant – the other had been killed Sunday afternoon – greeted Mohammed, injuring him grievously. But witnesses told IANS that the soldier did not give up. He opened fire and killed the terrorist.
Mohammed was rushed to a military hospital where he succumbed to his wounds late Sunday.
The state police and the army had jointly launched the operation after the militants killed two villagers and then took shelter in a house with their grenades and AK-47 rifles.
According to the police, the militants entered the house of Hoshiar Singh in Kali Mandi in Samba and opened fire, killing him and his wife Shashi Bala. Their daughter Bindu and Singh’s mother-in-law were injured in the firing.
Police and army units, alerted by villagers, converged on the area and engaged the militants in a gun battle.
A photojournalist, Ashok Sodhi, died in the exchange of fire. Two people were reported injured in the militant attack – the first in the Jammu plains since 2002.
The militants, after being chased by security personnel, hid in a nearby house belonging to Suresh Singh. A woman and two children were trapped inside the house. In the afternoon, the militants killed the woman and threw her body out of the house.
Security forces managed to kill one of the militants by afternoon, but as night fell there were fears the other would manage to escape.
The terrorist threw several grenades from his hideout, causing chaos. One of the grenades exploded near Mohammed. He could not bear the sight of the injured and barged into the house to kill the militant.
After being injured in the gun fight earlier in the day, Major Mukul Chouhan had told his men that the blood he had shed “should not go waste”. Mohammed was among those who had carried Chouhan to the ambulance.