NEW DELHI: He was just days away from flying home to see his first child when he led his men in a bloody encounter with intruding militants in Kashmir valley and rescued a colleague caught in the firing line but the brave Major Dinesh Raghu Raman lost his life.

The officer in the early thirties will be posthumously conferred the nation's highest peacetime award, the Ashok Chakra. Braving heavy gunfire from holed up Lashkar-e-Toiba militants in Ringwari hamlet in Tangmarg in Baramulla district, the 34 Rashtriya Rifles officer led his men in the encounter billed as the bloodiest gunfight in Kashmir valley last year in which nine terrorists were killed.

Raman rushed to the gunfight site on hearing about his forces cordoning off a house in the hamlet following inputs that a big group of terrorists was holed up in the house after managing to sneak across the LoC. Raman also went headlong into the terrorist firing line to rescue his colleague Major K P Vinay, in the best traditions of camaraderie in the army.

After slaying a number of terrorists, Raman brought back Major Vinay from the firing line and in the process received shots in his chest and legs. Raman along with his injured fellow soldiers was airlifted to Srinagar base hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.

As he was being taken away from the encounter site, the profusely bleeding Raman's last words to his men were: "Don't let any terrorist escape". Raman's wife Latha, an employee of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) was on an assignment to London and had just returned as she was expecting her first child in two months time. Raman had applied for leave to join his wife.

Receiving his body at Palam technical area here, his father veteran Subedar Major (Hon captain) S Krishnamurthy said, "despite losing my son I would still advise my grandchild who is yet to be born, to join the army and serve the nation". Major Raghu Raman hailed from Kachipuram in Tamil Nadu and was commissioned in 1999 in the Jat regiment. -

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