Abhishek Behl, Merinews.com
A valiant officer of Jammu and Kashmir police, Shaily Singh was engaged to be married on June 27. He could have taken things easy and could have easily skipped his meeting with the militants, but he chose not to.
Waiting for wedding bells to sound a sweet-sacred ring, the family of Shaily Singh, a valiant officer in Jammu and Kashmir police did not know that fate had something else in store.
While the family members were making plans for the proposed wedding on June 27, they did not know that their daring son had plunged head on into militant gunfire and was injured fatally.
Singh, a specialist counter terrorism officer, who had escaped unhurt several times in dangerous encounters, was not so lucky this time as a barrage of bullets hit him and ultimately snuffed out his life.
A dare devil, the young Deputy Superintendent of Police was killed when he was hit by a burst fired by the militants with an AK rifle from inside the house of a State Forest Corporation (SFC) employee at Udrana on the outskirts of Bhadarwah yesterday.
Police said the DySP along with 17 police personnel, all in civil dresses, had rushed to Doda after Intelligence Bureau (IB) shared a specific input with senior police officers that a group of four to six militants were moving from Srinagar to Bhadarwah in a TATA Sumo.
Sources said the militants were travelling in the Sumo with a plate of ‘BSNL’ latched in front. Singh and his policemen followed the Sumo from some distance. The militants took shelter in the house of a SFC peon Shabir Ahmed alias Billa alias Sabba and his brother Shakoor Ahmed alias Shanku at Udrana on Bhadarwah’s outskirts. Both Sabba and Shanku have been detained by police.
In a bid to trap the militants and capture them alive, the DySP made a heroic attempt to enter the house. The militants, who had sensed the presence of police, fired a burst from inside the house without giving the police personnel a chance to come into action, killing the DySP on the spot. By the time, the cops accompanying him came into action, the militants deserted the house and took positions atop a hill.
Recruited as an Inspector in the Jammu and Kashmir on compassionate grounds as his father Udhey Vir Singh was also killed by militants, Shaily was instrumental in several successful counter-insurgency operations and was considered one of the most gallant officers in the state police.
As the marriage had been fixed on June 27, the entire family was making plans to shop and buy jewellery, when suddenly senior officials informed them about the incident.
An official, who has been closely working on the condition of anonymity, said that it was sad that a young officer had been lost at the prime of his career, adding, that his life could have been saved had the operation been conducted in a more professional manner.
The scene at the home of the slain officer was a repeat of what happened in 1993, when his father Udhey Vir Singh, an SHO in Gandhi Nagar police station was killed in a grenade attack by Sikh militants.
Lamenting at the death of the Dy SP Shaily Singh, IGP Jammu, SP Vaid, said that it was a great loss to the state and the country as he had proved his mettle in the most trying circumstances.
With tears in his eyes, a member of the SOG group headed by Singh, recalled the great time they shared working together. “Even when bullets were fired on us, he asked us to move forward and was ready to take the terrorists head on”, he added.
Meanwhile, some of the officials questioned the manner in which the operation was conducted. They opined that had the local police and Army been involved the life of the young officer could have been saved.