Gun salutes, teary farewell to Uri bravehearts

The nation is paying an emotional tribute to all the 18 Indian Army bravehearts, who lost their lives in Sunday's dastardly militant attack in Uri Sector of Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district.

The mortal remains of all the Uri bravehearts have been taken to their ancestral places for the last rites.

Yesterday, they were given an emotional farewell at the Army Headquarters in Badamibagh by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, senior Army and police officials.

Mehbooba visited the injured soldiers at the 92 Base Hospital of the Army in Srinagar post the wreath laying ceremony. Several jawans continue to battle serious injuries.

Subedar K Singh, Havildar NS Rawat, Havildar R Paul, Naik SK Vidhyarthi, Havildar Ashok Kumar, Sepoy N Kujur, Sepoy U Janrao, Sepoy RK Singh, Sepoy H Yadav, Lance Naik RK Ydadav, Sepoy G Shankar, Sepoy KV Janardhan, Sepoy G Dalui, Sepoy R Singh, Sepoy B Ghorai, Lance Naik G Shankar, Sepoy TS Somnath and Sepoy J Munda are the 18 bravehearts, who lost their lives in the service of the nation.

Four heavily armed militants had stormed the battalion headquarters of the Army in Uri, close to the Line of Control (LoC), in the wee hours on Sunday, killing 18 jawans and injuring more than 20 other personnel. In the encounter, the security forces neutralised all of them within hours.

The terrorists, who attacked the military base in Jammu and Kashmir's Uri, belonged to Pakistan's banned terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

Following crucial meeting yesterday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his key ministers received counsel against rash military action.

Top military commanders warned that Pakistan's Army had raised its defensive posture along the LoC.

Few details emerged from the meeting, but senior government figures pushed back against calls from their ranks for immediate military strikes against Pakistan.

The meeting attended by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, heard from National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and Army chief General Dalbir Singh on possible long-term options to retaliate against jihadist logistics and the Pakistani military infrastructure.

The Prime Minister briefed President Pranab Mukherjee on the discussions late Monday.

Prime Minister Modi and the Home Minister strongly condemned the terrorist attack in Uri.

Prime Minister Modi assured the nation that those behind this will not go unpunished.

In a series of tweets after the attack, the Prime Minister said: "I assure the nation that those behind this despicable attack will not go unpunished".

He added, "We salute all those martyred in Uri. Their services to the nation will always be remembered. My thoughts are with the bereaved families (of the Army jawans)".

Rajnath branded Islamabad as a terrorist state and said the Asian neighbour should be isolated and sanctioned at international platforms.

Pakistan has, however, flatly rejected New Delhi's claims of involvement in the Uri terror attack, stating that the latter has a traditional tendency to point fingers at the former whenever a terror attack takes place on Indian soil.

Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lieutenant General Ranbir Singh yesterday warned Pakistan in the wake of the Uri strike and said India reserves the right to respond to any act of the adversary.

"We have the desired capability to reply to such blatant act of violence in a manner as deemed appropriate by us. We reserve the right to respond to any act of the adversary at the time and place of our own choosing," he told the media in New Delhi.