Reflections on the Kokernag Encounter
By Farooq Wani
The ongoing encounter in the Kokernag area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district in which commanding officer Colonel Manpreet Singh, company commander Major Aashish Dhonchak and a soldier of 19 Rashtriya Rifles Rashtriya Rifles along with deputy superintendent (DSP) of J&K Police Hamayun Muzamil Bhat gave the supreme sacrifice indicates that the menacing shadow of terrorism still looms in some pockets of J&K.
Coming just after New Delhi hosted a grand ceremony to mark India’s spectacular and praiseworthy presidency of G-20, there are strong suspicions that a jealous Pakistan orchestrated this dastardly attack by using terrorists that it has been patronising.
While a lot has been written and said about the strategic and tactical significance of this terrorist act, the human angle has largely been ignored. A Sena Medal awardee, Colonel Singh was a true soldier who volunteered to continue serving in J&K despite completing his tenure. Maj Dhonchak was another die-hard soldier who put duty before self and has left behind a bereaved wife along with a three-year-old daughter, who will at best, only have a hazy memory of her father.
Son of a retired Inspector General of Police (IGP), DSP Bhat was a highly motivated Kashmiri, who following his father’s footsteps joined J&K police and it was heartrending to see him performing his son’s last rites. While DSP Bhat’s loss will forever haunt his near and dear ones, his one month old son is perhaps the most unfortunate as he will have to grow up without the loving hand of his father on his shoulder. In fact, this is precisely what had weighed on Bhat’s mind after he was mortally wounded when he made a video call to his wife and told his wife “I may not survive. If I
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