Salute the soldier for his exceptionally brave act at Tral, J&K

Two very dangerous militants, an Indian and a Pakistani were holed up in a house and engaged security forces for 15 hours.

The 15-hour Tral encounter that took place on Saturday and ended the next day was one of the toughest and deadliest encounters that have taken place in recent times. Two very dangerous militants, an Indian and a Pakistani were holed up in a house and engaged security forces for 15 hours.

Two terrorists were holed up inside a house and continued to engage security forces. The residents said after the encounter that they were unable to sleep as the firing went on for the entire night. There were loud bangs and bullet sounds that kept them awake.

['Koi baat nahin saab', this brave constable said while battling terrorists at Tral]

There was one a time when everyone thought that the encounter was over. The firing had stopped and it was believed that the terrorists had died. However firing resumed after an hour. In the meantime a large number of locals landed at the encounter site and began pelting stones at the security forces. This took place despite the strict advisory that no one shall assemble in a three kilometre radius of any encounter site.

The security forces had to face disruptions several times during the encounter thanks to locals landing up at the spot and pelting stones. One of the locals even snatched away the rifle of a security personnel and disappeared. A separate operation had to be launched to recover the rifle.

[How stone pelters got wind of the Tral encounter in J&K]

The locals were alerted about the encounter because of a call made by Maulvi to his mother. He told his mother that he was holed up in a house in the Hafoo area which was surrounded by security personnel. He is said to have told his mother that he would not surrender and would fight instead. Sources say that his family members may have tipped off the locals who then gathered at the encounter site in large numbers and attempted to disrupt the encounter.

However, it was the heroics of Manzoor Ahmed Naik which helped finish the encounter. The terrorists managed to engage the security forces for nearly 15 hours in the encounter that began at 6 pm on Saturday. Naik was repeatedly told his superiors not to approach the house. However, he insisted at least twice during the course of the encounter that he wanted to plant the explosives near the house.

It was pitch dark and he crawled towards the house to plant the explosives. As he approached the house, he was once again told by his superiors not to take any risk. However he continued and planted the explosives and returned. Only half the house was demolished in the explosion.

Two hours later, he volunteered to plant more explosives. He moved towards the house and while doing so, he came under heavy fire by the militants. Despite being wounded badly, he went ahead and planted the explosives near the remaining part of the house. This explosion brought down the entire house. However, Naik breathed his last.

OneIndia News