Srinagar, November 3
It’s routine for Kashmiri journalists to turn their heads to the left when entering the highly-fortified 15 Corps headquarters of the Army in Srinagar in memory of an officer who saved the lives of three newsmen and one of his staff members before being gunned down by Lashker-e-Toiba militants 20 years ago.
Major P Purushottam, along with five other Army men, laid down his life thwarting a fidayeen attack on the defence public relations office that is thronged by journalists.
The Army later instituted an award recognising his presence of mind and supreme sacrifice to safeguard civilians. The trophy is given to one of the 30 Army Goodwill Schools run by the 15 Corps in Kashmir valley.
The award was instituted 16 years after his death by the then Corps Commander, Lt Gen Subrata Saha (retd).
Maj Purushottam, who literally lived up to his name, laid down his life while saving the lives of the three Kashmiri journalists who had come to meet him on the fateful day of November 3, 1999, minutes before LeT militants carried out their first suicide attack on the fortified office of the strategically important Army cantonment.
The Army officer had arrived in the Valley at a time when militancy was at its peak and misinformation against the Army, engaged in counter-insurgency operations, was spreading fast due to involvement of militant sympathisers.
On the fateful day, gunshots rang one after the other and Maj Purushottam, without caring for his own safety, pushed the journalists and a colleague into the washroom attached to his office.
Firing indiscriminately, the mercenaries entered the Major’s room and, when they left, Maj Purushottam and five members of his staff lay dead. All three journalists cheated death, thanks to the quick thinking by the Major. — PTI
from The Tribune https://ift.tt/327qaoA
via Today’s News Headlines
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