Early Times Report
Nagrota, Nov 29: Bravery of the wives of two army officers who were staying in the family quarters helped in averting a major hostage crisis during the encounter that took place at Nagrota, 15 kilometres from here, on Tuesday. Soon after the heavily armed terrorists entered an army unit located within three kilometers from the headquarters of the 16 Corps, they wanted to enter the family quarters where they could take the families of the soldiers and officers hostage. However, due to the bravery of two women, who were staying in the family quarters along with their newborns, the plans of the terrorists could not materialize.
"The wives of the two army officers, who were on night duty when the encounter broke out, displayed exemplary courage as they blocked the entry of their quarters with all the household items, making it difficult for the terrorists to break into the houses," an army officer privy to the encounter said.
Had the women not shown alertness, the terrorists would have been able to take them hostage and would have succeeded in causing huge damage to the army and the families, he said. "The terrorists entered two buildings which were occupied by officers, their families. This led to a hostage-like situation. The situation was very quickly contained and thereafter, in a deliberate operation all were successfully rescued, which included 12 soldiers, two women and two babies," Defence spokesman Lt Col Manish Mehta said.
The two babies rescued are 18 months and two months old, the officer said. However, in the rescue attempt one more officer and two jawans sacrificed their lives, the spokesman said.
The Army has not called off the operation but suspended it as they want to be fully sure that the area has been completely sanitized and all terrorists have been killed.
"The operation is going on, we have suspended it for the night, but the area has been placed under tight cordon, the Army does not want to take any risk and we will resume the operations with the first light of the morning," the spokesman said. |
