J-K: Army pays tribute to JCO Rakesh Kumar killed in Kishtwar encounter
Jammu (PTI): Army on Monday laid wreaths on the mortal remains of a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) who laid down his life in a gunfight with the terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kishtwar district.
Naib Subedar Rakesh Kumar of the Army's 2 Para, was killed and three more soldiers were injured in the gunfight on Sunday.
The encounter broke out when joint search parties of the Army and police intercepted the terrorists around 11 am in the Keshwan forest area. The exchange of fire went on for more than four hours.
Naib Subedar Rakesh Kumar laid down his life on Sunday, while three other soldiers were injured in the gunfight with terrorists in a remote forest area in Keshwan.
The operation comes amid an intensified hunt that has been underway since the recent killing of two Village Defence Guards (VDGs).
The General Officer Commanding (GoC) of the White Knight Corps, Lieutenant General Navin Sachdeva, led the wreath-laying ceremony at the IAF station in Jammu, where the Naib Subedar’s mortal remains were brought from Kishtwar.
The bugle sounded at the last post and an Army contingent presented a salute to honour the fallen soldier.
"In a solemn wreath-laying ceremony, GoC White Knight Corps laid a wreath in Jammu to pay homage to the braveheart Naib Subedar Rakesh Kumar, who made the supreme sacrifice while undertaking a counter-terrorist operation in Kishtwar," the White Knight Corps posted on X.
The mortal remains of Naib Subedar Kumar have been airlifted by a chopper to his native place in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi.
Following deadly attacks in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch over the past three years, terror activities have expanded to six other districts in the Jammu region this year, leading to the deaths of 44 people, including 18 security personnel and 13 terrorists, security officials said.
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Pakistan reports two more polio cases; Total tally now 52
ISLAMABAD: At least two more cases of poliovirus were reported in Pakistan, taking the number of infections to 52 so far this year, a report said on Friday.
“The Regional Reference Laboratory for Polio Eradication at the National Institute of Health has confirmed the detection of two more wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) cases in Pakistan," an official statement said.
The fresh infections — a boy and a girl — were reported from the Dera Ismail Khan district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
“Genetic sequencing of the samples collected from the children is underway," the statement read. Dera Ismail Khan, one of the seven polio-endemic districts of southern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has reported five polio cases so far this year.
Of the 52 cases in the country this year, 24 are from Balochistan, 13 from Sindh, 13 from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and one each from Punjab and Islamabad.
There is no cure for polio. Only multiple doses of the oral polio vaccine and completion of the routine vaccination schedule for all children under the age of five can keep them protected.
