Indian Army soldiers bear the casket of their comrade, Lans Naik Hemraj, who was beheaded by Muslim terrorists. (Photo : Indian Army)
An Indian Army soldier or jawan was beheaded by Muslim Kashmiri terrorists that infiltrated the Line of Control (LoC) covered by heavy fire from the Pakistan Army, said the Indian Army today.
The soldier was identified as Manjeet Singh of the 17 Sikh Light Infantry. He was mutilated in the Macchil sector of the Kupwara district in Indian-administered Kashmir. The army has strongly condemned the mutilation and vowed to "respond appropriately" to the barbarism.
This is the fifth known beheading of a jawan since 2011. A jawan named Lans Naik Hemraj was beheaded in January of that year while another jawan was decapitated in August. The Indian Army blamed both barbarisms on the Pakistan Army's "Border Action Team" (BAT).
But the most horrific beheadings were committed by BAT in July 2011. An attack by a BAT team at a remote Indian Army outpost, also in Kupwara, led to the deaths of three jawans.
Two of these men, Havildar Jaipal Singh Adhikari and Lance Naik Devender Singh of 20 Kumaon, were beheaded and their heads taken back to Pakistan.
Indian Army sources said the attack today seemed to also be the handiwork of a BAT, which normally consists of highly-trained Kashmiri terrorists and men of Pakistan's "Special Services Group" (SSG).
According to the Indian Army, BAT is specifically employed by the Pakistan Army for short-range "trans-LoC" raids into Indian-administered Kashmir, sometimes reaching up to three kilometers from the border.
This new firefight and the beheading of a jawan will most certainly worsen tensions along the LoC and at Jammu and Kashmir.
The reaction by the Indian public to the beheading was one of anger, horror and calls for revenge against Pakistan and the terrorists. Twitter was flooded by demands for righteous revenge.
Beheadings are commonly practiced by extremist Muslim terrorists such as ISIS in Iraq and Syria and the Abu Sayyaf Muslim terrorist bandit group in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
It remains unclear if the jawan was beheaded after being captured or beheaded after he was killed.
War has been in the air since September when Kashmiri Muslim terrorists killed 19 jawans in a raid on the Uri district in Kashmir. India replied to this atrocity with a series of surgical strikes at Pakistan Army and Kashmiri terrorist positions in Pakistan-controller Kashmir.
