And just like that, they were gone..5 soldiers martyred

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April 7, 2020: This post has been taken from ‘Heroes in Uniform’ page on Facebook, about the martyrdom of five soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir.

“They launched like every other time. Communication check, Equipment check, weapon check, Med check.. The rotors whirred, the drop made in the green glow. And then the arduous 4 hour journey began in the dense forest.

As the world lay quarantined, made prisoners in their own home by a Virus. The buddies advanced nonchalantly.. fearlessly.. with purpose. The squad moved as one.

A group of terrorists had infiltrated across the Line of Control last week. Movement had been noticed near fence on Wednesday from drone imagery. On Saturday, two squads of the 4 Para (Special Forces) were deployed for a forward staging to the nearest battalion headquarters, and from there to Rangdoori, Guguldara and Teen Behak areas of Jumgund.

Tracking footsteps in the snow, one of the 4 Para squads in the snow tragically realised too late that they were on a cornice — an overhanging mass of hardened snow at the edge of a mountain precipice. It broke under their weight and they fell into a nallah, a frozen mountain stream, right into where the terrorists were hiding. This led to a close quarter fight in the most literal sense. The squad engaged the infiltrators at point blank range amidst heavy snow, neutralising the entire lot before succumbing to injuries in the hand to hand battle.

In the words of an officer familiar with details, “As luck would have it, where they fell, the militants were sitting right there. This led to a firefight at virtually point blank range. I have to give it to the training standards of the SF guys. Inspite of the fall, all five terrorists were killed. The complete squad was lost.”

There were no last letters for just in case. No last calls to tell one more time. No recorded videos for posterity. No last wishes on Radio, when they lay bleeding with their guts spilled but still fighting.

They launched like ghosts in the dark, fought like the warriors in the solitary night but only came back silently, draped in the tricolour.

We lost Subedar Sanjeev Kumar and Paratrooper Bal Krishan from Himachal Pradesh, Havildar Davendra Singh and Paratrooper Amit Kumar from Uttarakhand, and Paratrooper Chhatrapal Singh from Rajasthan.

God Bless the brave souls…. RIP”