Life of a young and brave soldier

Soldier in grave, on 20th birthday
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
Extracted from the Telegraph Kolkata dated 25-03-09

Dhab (Ganderbal), March 25: Shabir Ahmad Malik was laid to rest on a day he would have turned 20 in a Tricolour-wrapped coffin borne by fellow soldiers, his village turning out in strength to salute its son.

“Shabir would have been 20 today but, look, he is no more,” wept elder brother Ghulam Mohammad Malik.

“He was born to die this way. He studied in Sainik School Manasbal up to Class XII and then joined the army, where he was trained as a commando. We are pained at his death but he has also made us proud.”

The words could have been K. Unnikrishnan’s — the proud father of Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, the commando felled by terrorists from across the border during the Mumbai attack in November last year.

Shabir, like Sandeep who was 11 years older, died fighting militants. The commando from 1-Para regiment was killed on Monday during the encounter in the Kupwara forests that lasted five days.

By the time the shootout that kept hundreds of security forces on their toes ended yesterday, eight soldiers had died. Seventeen militants were also gunned down. The operation was declared over by the army yesterday but “the combing and search operation” is still on.

At Shabir’s home in Ganderbal, where his family would have celebrated his 20th birthday, villagers were gathered in mourning. Women beat their chests and showered confetti and flower petals on his coffin, and men accompanied it to the graveyard chanting slogans. All roads in Ganderbal appeared to lead to the village.

On the way to the graveyard, the coffin was placed in the compound of a one-storey house for people to catch a last glimpse of the soldier who had united the Indian Army and the Kashmiri villagers in grief.

“This is only the second time I have seen so many people joining the funeral of an Indian soldier and the reason could be primarily that he was a local boy,” a police officer said.

“The last time so many people had turned up was during the funeral of Muzaffar Ahmad, a Shangus resident who was also a soldier and died fighting militants.”

But unlike then, pro-India slogans rent the air yesterday as the army gave Shabir a gun salute.

“It could be because the village is Shia-dominated,” the officer said.

Kashmir villages usually reserve a hero’s send-off for militants killed by security forces, not Indian soldiers.

Defence spokesperson Lt Col J.S. Brar said: “The militant group most likely consisted of an infiltrating column as well as the terrorists who had gone to receive them. The operation was based on sound intelligence inputs as well as human intelligence provided by own sources.”

A large cache of arms and ammunition was recovered. Seventeen assault rifles, four under barrel grenade launchers (UBGL), 13 AK magazines, 207 AK ammunition, 19 UBGL grenades, two grenades, two GPS sets, one Thuraya radio set, one Kenwood radio set, three map sheets, three matrix sheets, two haversacks and Rs 9,200 in Indian currency were recovered in the operations.