New Delhi: Colonel Neeraj Sood, who is the first Colonel to be killed in the Kashmir Valley in three years and the fourth army officer to fall to terrorists' bullets this year, was cremated amidst state honours in New Delhi on Thursday.
Colonel Sood's widow Priti Sood is inconsolable. A month after she and her husband celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary, it is not quite the way she would have wanted to remember this year with her husband wrapped in the Tricolour being taken for the last rites.
The 40-year-old commanding officer of the 18 Rajputana Rifles was hit by a bullet in a counter insurgency operation in Kashmir's Kupwara district last Tuesday.
Unlike her mother, 11-year-old Mishika is a picture of strength. Just last week the entire family had come down to Delhi to meet her grandparents. What she didn't knew then was that she would soon have to be back, but this time, for her father's last rites.
Hundreds of soldiers gathered at the Brar Square in the capital where the valiant soldier was cremated amidst full state honours. But in the midst of the pain it was pride that shone through, for a husband, a father and a colleague.
"He will be remembered for his bravado, he will be remembered for his courage, for his dedication, honesty and integrity that he has shown throughout his career and he was a great source of motivation and encouragement not only to his battalion and Rashtriya Rifles but to the entire regiment," said Lt Gen KT Parnaik.
Colonel Sood had led several counter insurgency operations in the past and won. But the script for this battle was perhaps meant to have a different ending.
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