THE world on Wednesday (13) remained witness to heart-wrenching scenes in Anantnag in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir as a retired police officer paid final tributes to his son, a senior police officer who was martyred in an encounter with terrorists along with two armymen.
Ghulam Hassan Bhat took 10 steps, the most difficult ones of his life, in the evening as he approached the coffin containing the body of his 33-year-old son Humayun Muzammil Bhat, a deputy superintendent of police with Jammu and Kashmir Police, and draped in the Tricolour, to lay a wreath on it.
The retired policeman was composed despite the crushing loss and walked back, accompanied by a police officer, after taking a short pause after laying the wreath. A video of his final tribute to his son left the netizens shattered as it summed up the human cost of terror.
Sources said The Resistance Force, an offshoot of the Pakistan-backed Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the attack and stated that it was a revenge attack for the killing of their veteran leader in Pakistan occupied Kashmir earlier in September.
Family members mourn the death of Jammu and Kashmir deputy superintendent of police Humayun Muzammil Bhat during his last rites, in Budgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. Bhat lost his life in the Anantnag encounter. (ANI Photo)
Bhat was martyred along with colonel Manpreet Singh from Chandigarh and major Ashok Dhonack from Haryana in Kokernag in Anantnag where they had gone for a joint anti-insurgency operation involving the local police and the army. The officers were critically injured during a gunfight and despite immediate reinforcements, they could not be evacuated fast because of heavy firing from the terrorists.
Bhat reportedly suffered heavy injuries and died due to heavy loss of blood.
Bhat, who joined the force five years ago, had handled several difficult missions, many of whom were exclusively related to anti-terror operations .
The slain police officer's last rites were held in Budgam of Jammu and Kashmir with people turning out in large numbers. Lieutenant governor (L-G) Manoj Sinha and director general of police Dilbag Singh also attended the occasion and met Bhat's aggrieved family members and paid tributes to him.
"Paid tributes to JKP's DySP Humayun Bhat, who laid down his life in an anti-terror operation in Anantnag. I salute the indomitable courage and supreme sacrifice of Col Manpreet Singh & Major Ashish Dhonack. Entire nation stands firmly with their families in this hour of grief," the L-G's office said in a post on X.
Bhat is survived by his wife and a son who is just a month old.
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