‘Bow to our soldiers’: Amit Shah pays tribute to 5 security personnel killed in Handwara encounter

Union Home Minister Amit Shah paid tribute to the five security personnel who were killed in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmir’s Handwara on Sunday. Shah said that the entire country will remain indebted to the supreme sacrifice made them.

“I bow to our soldiers and security personnel martyred while protecting our motherland during an encounter with terrorists in Handwara in Jammu and Kashmir. Nation will always remain indebted to their supreme sacrifice. My deepest condolences to their bereaved families,” Shah said on Twitter. 

I bow to our soldiers and security personnel martyred while protecting our motherland during an encounter with terrorists in Handwara in Jammu and Kashmir. Nation will always remain indebted to their supreme sacrifice. My deepest condolences to their bereaved families.

— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) May 3, 2020

Five security force personnel, including Indian Army’s Colonel and Major, and a Jammu and Kashmir Police officer, were killed in the gunbattle with terrorists in Handwara in north Kashmir on Sunday.

Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, Major Anuj Sood, Naik Rajesh Kumar, Lance Naik Dinesh Singh and sub-inspector of Jammu-Kashmir police Shakeel Qazi were martyred in the line of duty while rescuing civilians held hostage by the terrorists.

Two terrorists were also shot dead by the security forces in the Handwara encounter.

Col Sharma, the commanding officer of the army’s 21 Rashtriya Rifles battalion, was leading the three army men and the sub-inspector and had been locked in a gunfight with the terrorists holed up inside a house in Rajwar forests.

The army said a joint operation was launched by the army and state police based on the intelligence input that terrorists were taking hostage some civilians in a house.

Also watch| Handwara encounter: Army Colonel among 5 martyred, 2 terrorists gunned down 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also paid tributes to security personnel for their supreme sacrifice.

“Tributes to our courageous soldiers and security personnel martyred in Handwara. Their valour and sacrifice will never be forgotten. They served the nation with utmost dedication and worked tirelessly to protect our citizens. Condolences to their families and friends,” he said on Twitter.

While the four Army personnel and the police sub-inspector lost their lives in the encounter, the civilians trapped in the house were safely evacuated.