Hail the supreme sacrifice of Lance Naik Mohannath Goswami

•          The safety, honour and welfare of your country comes first always and every time.

•          The  honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next.

•          Your own ease, comfort and safety come last always and every time.

.. .. .. ..        These values stoke the attitude of Service before Self in every soldier.  Our every moment of comfort is sponsored by relentless, selfless, valiant – soldiers who safeguard the Nation and we must thank them eternally.

The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces.  The units and regiments of the Indian Army have diverse histories and have participated in a number of battles and campaigns across the world, earning a large number of battle and theatre honours before and after Independence. The primary mission of the Indian Army is to ensure national security and unity, defending the nation from external aggression and threats, and maintaining peace and security within its borders.

The infusion of high technology based precision weaponry has enhanced the lethality of future warfare manifold. The spectrum of threat ranges from the nuclear to the conventional and the assymetric, with terrorism emerging like a hydra-headed monster. Add to this the rigours of climate i.e. the glacial heights and extreme cold, dense mountainous jungles and the heat and simoom of the deserts. Such are the trying environs in which a soldier operates.

Lance naik (L/Nk) is the equivalent rank to lance corporal in the Pakistan, Bangladesh and Indian Armies and before 1947, in the British Indian Army, ranking below naik. In cavalry units the equivalent is acting lance daffadar. Like British lance corporals, each wears a single rank chevron.

Creating a unique history of valour and dedication to duty, one of the Special Forces Commandos of the Indian Army, Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami, killed ten terrorists in a short span of 11 days before making supreme sacrifice in continued fight against terror in Kashmir Valley on Thursday.

Lance Naik Goswami was killed at Hafruda forests in Kupwara district in fierce fire fight with terrorists, but not before the elimination of four of them. “A true soldier, he breathed his last in action,’’ said a defence ministry spokesperson Colonel S D Goswami at the Northern Command headquarters in Udhampur. Hailing from Indira Nagar village in Haldwani tehsil of Nainital, he is survived by his wife and a seven-year-old daughter. Part of numerous successful counter terrorist operations in the state, Lance Naik Goswami had been actively involved in three such operations in which ten terrorists were killed and one captured alive in the last 11 days.

Giving details, the spokesperson said that in the first operation, three Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists hailing from Pakistan were killed in Khurmur, Handwara on August 23. He again volunteered for a second back-to-back operation in which three more Lashkar terrorists were killed and another Sajjad Ahmad alias Abu Ubed Ullah captured alive during the two day-long fierce fire fight in Rafiabad after a fierce fire fight on August 26-27. The apprehension of Sajjad Ahmad alias Abu Ubed Ullah, a resident of Muzzafargarh, proved to be a shot in the arm to establish Pakistan’s complicity in abetting terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir, the defence ministry spokesperson said.

Lance Naik Goswami, once again, volunteered to be part of an ongoing operation launched in the dense Hafruda forest near Kupwara, Kashmir. This proved to be his last operation but not before elimination of four terrorists in a heavy gun battle, the spokesperson pointed out.

He had volunteers to join Indian Army’s elite para commandos unit in 2002 and “went on to gain the reputation of being one of the toughest soldiers of his unit, no small feat in an outfit that boasts of being one among the best in the world’’, the spokesperson said. His mortal remains were flown by an IAF aircraft to Bareilly, from where they will be taken by an Army helicopter to Pant Nagar and onward to his native place where he will be cremated with full military honours, he added.

Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami,  Special Forces Commando of the Army  is no more -  laid down his life while battling militants in Handwara on Thursday; he had eliminated 10 militants in a short span of 11 days before making the supreme sacrifice in Kashmir.

"In the last 11 days, he was actively involved in three counter-terrorism operations in the Kashmir Valley in which 10 terrorists have been eliminated and one captured alive," Udhampur-based Defence Spokesman Colonel S D Goswami said. "The mortal remains of this brave heart commando have been flown by an IAF aircraft to his home town in Bareilly. They will be taken by Army helicopter to Pant Nagar and onward to his native place where he will be cremated with full military honour," it is stated.

Lance Naik Goswami was a resident of Village Indira Nagar, Haldwani in Nainital. He is survived by wife and a seven-year-old daughter.

With grief – S. Sampathkumar

5^th Sept. 2015.

Source :  IndianExpress.com and www.msn.com

Photo : https://www.facebook.com/Indianarmy.adgpi