Representational Photograph
On March 22, a combined operation launched by the Indian Army, the Jammu and Kashmir Police (J&K) and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) eliminated four terrorists who had an allegiance with the banned Islamic terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).
Taking cognisance of the situation, the army asked the local militants to surrender with the assurance that they will be treated humanely and that the government will do everything to help rehabilitate them.
As the negotiations moved forward, the army even got hold of the wife of one of the terrorists and his four-year-old son to ask him to surrender and she asked her husband to surrender for the sake of the children. The army even allowed his son to speak to him and the child asked his father to come back.
4 terrorists gunned down: Counter terror operations on camera | #IndiaFirst with @GauravCSawant #ITLivestream https://t.co/ZlRqt6YtRI
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) March 22, 2021
However, the other three militants did not allow that to happen. The security forces could have taken them down but they waited till the morning hoping they would be able to reach an accord.
The army suffered one injury when a soldier risked his own life trying to talk to these misguided men. The soldier in question belonged to the 34 Rashtriya Rifles, according to GOC Victor force commander Maj Gen Rashim Bali.
As a last ditch attempt to reason with the surrounded militants, the army brought a man who was a former Lashkar terrorist and brother-in-law of one of the men. When that overture also failed and the militants opened fire on the security forces, the army was left with no choice but to retaliate which resulted in their death.
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