Captain Shubham Gupta: Special Forces officer who took bullets while saving people in Dhoks

Four Army men including two Captain rank officers have made supreme sacrifice in the line of duty in Rajouri district of Jammu while saving the civilian population that was there in Dhoks in upper reaches of the Baji Maal and Gulabgarh forest area where the encounter is underway for the last 24 hours. Captain Shubham Gupta and Captain MV Pranjal were leading the teams of Special Forces and Rashtriya Rifles respectively when they thwarted a major attempt of terrorists to occupy the Dhoks where children and women were living.

Five days after successful operation in Budhal area of Rajouri, Captain Shubham Gupta of Special Forces of Indian Army was leading the team chasing a group of Jaish E Mohammad terrorists in Baji Maal when he saw terrorists attempting to take route towards Dhoks of Rajouri, which are occupied by women and children of Gujjar community. Captain Shubham in a bid to stop the terrorists from entering the Dhoks ij upper reaches engaged in fierce gunfight with terrorists and ensured that precious lives are saved. The attempt of terrorists to occupy the Dhoks and create a hostage like situation was averted but both officers who led from the front sustained injuries and later succumbed.

On 18 November, Northern Army Commander Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi met a team led by Captain Shubham who carried out an operation in the Budhal which led to the elimination of trained Jaish terrorists from Pakistan and recovered a huge cache of arms and ammunition.

Officials said that General Officer Commanding (GoC) 16 Corps Lt Gen Sandeep Jain and Inspector General of Police Anand Jain are on the spot and a thorough operational review is being conducted by the two on the ongoing situation. Indian Army has inducted two units of Special Forces along with Rashtriya Rifles to wipe out hiding terrorists from the forests of Gulabgarh in Rajouri.

21 civilians and security force personnel have lost their lives in four terror attacks in the region in the last 11 months, with civilians lost their lives in the Dhangri terror attack on January 1 in Dhangri area of Rajouri district. The second attack happened on April 20th when the vehicle of the Indian Army’s Rashtriya Rifles was attacked by terrorists which led to the martyrdom of five jawans of the Indian Army in the Bhimber Gali area of Poonch. The third and deadliest attack happened in the Kandi area of Rajouri when 5 jawans of the Indian Army’s Special Forces ‘Para’ attained martyrdom in a terror attack in the woods of Kandi.