Srinagar: Lance Naik Sandeep Singh, who was part of the Army’s special forces that took part in surgical strikes against Pakistan in September 2016, was killed in the line of duty after he eliminated three terrorists in the Tangdhar operation of Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir on Monday. 

Singh, a resident of Gurdaspur in Punjab, was leading the search party of 4 Para commandos in the Gagadhri Nar area of Tangdhar sector in North Kashmir.

Sources in Army said infiltration was detected after suspicious movement was noticed near Pathri Behak, Tangdhar, around 190 km from Srinagar. Singh and his team launched an operation. The terrorists were challenged, but they launched heavy fire on the troops, in which two militants were killed on Sunday.  Singh eliminated three terrorists in the fierce gunbattle and saved his team members. 

“During the deadly attack, he got hit by a bullet on his head. He later succumbed to his injuries while he was being taken to the hospital,” Army sources said. 

Singh is survived by his wife and a five-year-old son. His body was brought back from the Tangdhar sector on monday afternoon.

Since Saturday, the Army has had eight fierce such gunfights with the militants in the dense forest area.  A huge haul of weapons and war-like stores were seized from the militants.

This is the third major anti-terror operation in the valley in the last three days. On September 21, security forces dealt a major blow to Lashkar-e-Taiba in north Kashmir when they killed five terrorists in a two-day long anti-terror operation in the Sukhba area of Bandipora district. On Sunday, a Pakistan Jaish-e-Mohammed militant was killed in Aripal-Tral in South Kashmir's Pulwama district.