Family loses lone breadwinner
Srinagar Oct 09 (KINS): Grief and sorrow engulfed the Nowgam area in Anantnag district of South Kashmir on Wednesday when the body of Army man Hilal Ahmad Bhat was brought home.
Bhat, who had been on leave to spend time with his family, returned to duty on Tuesday at the army camp of the 161st Territorial Army unit. Later that day, the Army, along with the J&K Police, launched a search operation in nearby forests based on intelligence inputs indicating the presence of terrorists.
Sources say that Bhat, along with another soldier, was sent to investigate specific intelligence leads. “However, they were confronted by terrorists. In the altercation, one soldier managed to escape despite sustaining two bullet wounds, and his condition is stable while Bhat was abducted,” a police official told news agency Kashmir Indepth News Service (KINS)
Security forces searched throughout the night for the missing soldier, and on Wednesday, his body was found in the Sanglan forest of Utrasoo, Anantnag.
Bhat, aged 30, is survived by his wife, a five-year-old son, and an infant daughter.
Fayaz Ahmad, a local resident, said the slain soldier was the sole breadwinner for his family. “He was a very nice and humble man. The entire village is in grief,” he added.
Earlier, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), the Indian Army’s Srinagar-based Chinar Corps stated, “Based on intelligence input, a joint counter-terrorist operation was launched by the Indian Army along with the Jammu and Kashmir Police and other agencies in the Kazwan Forest, Kokernag, on October 8. The operation continued overnight as one soldier of the Territorial Army was reported missing.”
Since 2022, terrorists have managed to abduct three army personnel. In August 2023, a soldier from Kulgam district in Kashmir went missing while on leave, and a similar incident occurred in the Budgam district of Central Kashmir in 2022
