‘Play your character with passion so that the applause continues’

Azhar Qadri

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 28

“In life, play your character with passion so that applause continues even when the curtain is down,” Colonel Munindra Nath Rai wrote in his last status on WhatsApp on December 11 last year.

On Tuesday afternoon, a day after being awarded Yudh Seva Medal, the curtain finally went down for Colonel Rai. He was killed while leading a counter-insurgency operation in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district.

In the last two days of his life, Colonel Rai replied to many congratulatory messages, he received for being awarded the medal, and led his last military mission against one of the most-wanted militants of south Kashmir’s Tral area.

“He was like a father figure... he was a role model. Always leading from the front and always encouraging soldiers and officers,” Lt Col Clinton Reuben, the second-in-command to Colonel Rai at the 42 Rashtriya Rifles, told The Tribune.

Colonel Rai, the Commanding Officer of the 42 Rashtriya Rifles, died on Tuesday afternoon at a village near Tral town when he was hit by a burst of gunfire during a raid on the house of Abid Khan, alias Hamza.

Hamza, the son of a police head constable, was one of the oldest surviving militants in Tral and was being constantly hunted by security forces.

The militant had clandestinely come home to see his ailing brother when information about his location got leaked, leading to the raid, subsequent gunfight and death of four men, including Hamza and Colonel Rai.

Hamza was active in the Tral area for at least four years and Colonel Rai was commanding the counter-insurgency battalion in the area — tasked to hunt Hamza and his associates —- for nearly two years since May 2013.

Colonel Rai, police head constable Sanjeevan Singh, Hamza and his associate Sheeraz Ahmad were killed in the Tuesday’s encounter at Handoora village.

“Col MN Rai always led from the front in multiple operations that he carried out in 2014 and in 2015. He was always in the front line, leading his men to deliver exceedingly well,” Lt Gen Subrata Saha, General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the 15 Corps, told reporters here.

Soldiers and officers of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps offered tributes to Colonel Rai at the Badamibagh cantonment here. Hamza, who fired the burst of bullets at the officer and was later killed in the ensuing gunfight, was buried in his village at almost the same time.

Giving details of the Tuesday’s operation, Lt General Saha said soon after the cordon, Colonel Rai was in charge “right in front”.

“He (Colonel Rai) was approached by the father of one of the slain terrorists that his son would like to surrender. He asked the father to go ahead and ask his son to surrender. At the same time, the slain terrorist’s brother also approached him and under these circumstances, both terrorists rushed out of the house that they were in and fired rampantly,” the GOC of the 15 Corps said.

UP announces Rs30 lakh for Col Rai’s family
Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday offered heartfelt condolences to Commanding Officer of the 42 RR Colonel Munindra Nath Rai and announced Rs 30 lakh as compensation to the slain officer’s family. A resident of Ghazipur district in Purvanchal, Rai was awarded Yudh Seva Medal on January 26, a day before he was killed fighting militants in Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir. — TNS