‘Bhaiya ko goli lag gayi’: CRPF jawan from Madhya Pradesh killed during Jammu and Kashmir anti-terror op

Uikey’s mother Inderwati said the family got a phone call informing them of her son’s death. “We went into shock. My children began shouting bhaiya ko goli lag gayi (Our brother was shot). My son died in the service of the nation. The officers told us his body will come tomorrow.”

Uikey, the oldest of four siblings, got married in 2021. Kabir’s brother Amir Uikey told The Indian Express that the jawan had met his family two weeks ago and told them that he could soon be shifted to a new outpost closer home.

Army personnel at the encounter site in Kathua’s Saida village on Wednesday. (PTI)

“My brother joined the CRPF around 2011. He was the first person in our family to join the security forces. My father died a few years ago. The entire family depended on my brother for survival,” he said.

Uikey “had made the highest sacrifice for the country”, Chhindwara MP-elect Vivek Bunty Sahu said after meeting the family. “I shared the immense grief that has come over the family. Chhindwara’s son did everything for Mother India,” he said.

The encounter, in which two militants have been killed so far, comes two days after a bus full of pilgrims came under attack in the UT’s Reasi district. Nine people were killed in that incident.