Tributes paid to soldiers killed in Pampore

Senior officials of the state civil administration and that of security agencies joined Lt Gen JS Sandhu, Chinar Corps Commander, in paying tributes to the soldiers.

Army called the militant attack on its convoy on Saturday in Pampore ‘dastardly’ and paid tributes to the three killed soldiers in a wreath-laying ceremony at Badami Bagh cantonment in Srinagar on Sunday.

Security personnel at the site of the attack in Pampore on the outskirts of Srinagar on 17 December 2016. (Waseem Andrabi/ Hindustan Times)

Senior officials of the state civil administration and that of security agencies joined Lt Gen JS Sandhu, Chinar Corps Commander, in paying tributes to the soldiers.

Motorcycle-borne militants fired on an army bus in southern Kashmir on Saturday afternoon, killing three soldiers and injuring several. Most of the soldiers were returning from leave and were unarmed.

The deceased have been identified as Naik (gunner) Ratheesh C (35), Gunner Farate Sourabh Nandkumar (33) and Gunner Shashikant Pandey (24).

Army in its statement said that Ratheesh had joined army in 2001 and hailed from Kotolipram, Kannur district in Kerala and is survived by wife and a son.

Nandkumar, from Bhekrai Nagar in Pune, had joined the services in 2004 and is survived by his wife and twin daughters.

“Only Pandey had four years of service and was in fact on his way to join his unit in the Valley. Survived by his parents, he hailed from Zharian, Dhanbad district in Jharkhand,” the army said in its statement.

The bodies of the martyrs will be flown for last rites to their native places where they will be laid to rest with full military honours, the army statement added.