JOIN USA retired honorary Captain of the Army, Fateh Singh, who won a Commonwealth gold medal in shooting in 1995, and another braveheart soldier Kulwant Singh, were the first ones to hold the terrorists at the canteen entrance gate when the militants launched an offensive.
Kulwant Singh was posted at the Pathankot air base only two months ago. Both contained the terrorists for over 15 minutes before falling to a spray of enemy bullets.
They are said to have killed two terrorists in counterfire. So far in the last two days of gun battle, 7 soldiers have been martyred and 20 injured.
A pall of gloom descended at the residence of the two soldiers in Punjab's Gurdaspur district. Both the soldiers had retired from the Army and were taken into the Defence Service Corps (DSC) that was engaged in the perimeter security of the air base at Pathankot.
Fateh Singh, who was honoured by the then prime minister HD Deve Gowda, was a national-level shooter and had served the 15 Dogra Regiment. His son Deepu is also serving in the 15 Dogra regiment. He made the nation proud after he clinched gold in the 300m big bore team and individual events during the first Commonwealth Shooting Championship held in 1995.
Fateh is survived by his wife Madhu Bala and sons Gurdeep Singh Deepu and Nitin Thakur.
Havildar Kulwant Singh of the DSC also fought the enemy hard. Only two moths ago, he was transferred from Odisha to Pathankot air base.
He is survived by his mother, wife Harbhajan Kaur and two sons. This morning, another casualty of an officer occurred during a search and combing operation. Lieutenant Colonel E K Niranjan of the NSG died on Sunday during the operation.