Ahmedabad

Had it not been for the raw courage of newly-recruited BSF trooper Rockey, who laid his life fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday, the border guarding force would have suffered more injurious in the audacious attack.

The 27-year-old constable of the forces’ 65th Battalion emptied his entire magazine containing about 40 bullets when the two heavily-armed militants attacked a Border Security Force convoy and a dark-green bus which had about 30 force personnel travelling in it in Udhampur.

“Had it not been the raw and daring courage of Rockey, we would have suffered more casualties. He sustained initial bullet injuries but kept on firing till he succumbed,” BSF Director General D K Pathak, who visited the ambush spot, told PTI.

Pathak left the ongoing DG-level talks with his visiting Bangladeshi border guarding counterparts mid-way here to take stock of the situation in Jammu and boost the morale of his men.

A senior force official said Rockey kept engaged both the militants and did not allow them to lob grenades on the bus full of BSF personnel. The young trooper, a resident of Haryana’s Yamunanagar, kept his tactical firing on as the reinforcement reached the spot only after 20 minutes.

“He was known as the rock force of the unit. He proved that he lived the true meaning of his name like a hero,” the official said. The martyred trooper also provided enough cover for his other colleagues to take position and retaliate.

Rockey’s colleague and driver of the bus Shubhenbdu Roy was also killed in the attack where militant punctured the tyres of the bus to immobilise it and then took targets to hit BSF men present inside. While one militant was killed at the spot, the other was later nabbed.

In another terror attack suspected to be originating from Pakistan on the crucial Jammu-Srinagar highway today claimed the two lives, but one of the two Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) terrorists involved was captured alive like Ajmal Kasab in the 2008 Mumbai terror strike.

PTI