Kupwara: The gunner Rishi Kumar of the army’s field artillery regiment traced three militants approaching his camp in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district on Thursday morning.
When they came in the range, Kumar started triggering his machine gun. In a counter fire by the militant, he was hit in his headgear, as reported by HT.
“The bulletproof patka (headgear) saved him, but he fell down as the shot’s impact caused a whiplash effect and he lost his balance,” an army spokesperson told.
Rishi kumar got up to his feet and started to fire again and killed two of them in seconds.
While shooting at the third one, his ammunition got exhausted and he picked up one of the militants’ gun outside his sand bunker where he was also shot by the militant.
Kumar’s colleagues helped to take him to the hospital after he was shot, where paramedics started the initial treatment and told that he was out of danger.
Colonel Saurab Joshi informed that the operation lasted 35 minutes and Kumar’s timely action saved the lives of many soldiers. However, the militants killed three soldiers, including an officer, before they reached to Kumar.
The attack was similar to one of the Uri attacks, where 19 soldiers were killed when militants entered the army camp at dawn along the Indian-Pakistan border in Kashmir last September.