Birth amid bullets in camp

STRICT VIGIL: Security personnel take position around the family quarters at Sunjuwan military camp during the second day of the terror attack in Jammu on Sunday. (PTI)

Muzaffar Raina, TT, Feb 11, 2018 Srinagar: Naik Nazir Ahmad became a proud father of a baby girl when bullets were raining all around.

Ahmad's wife, who was expecting a baby anytime, was hit by a bullet on her thigh inside their residential quarters during the militant attack on an army camp in Jammu on Saturday.

Officials said the soldier and his wife locked themselves inside when militants came spraying bullets at their quarters.

The army received an SOS that Ahmad's wife Shahzada was bleeding profusely and needed to be evacuated to hospital.

Shahzada was among half-a-dozen family members of soldiers who were injured in the militant attack. The father of a soldier later died of his wounds.

Army soldiers moved cautiously towards the injured as they were locked in a close-quarter gunfight with the militants. Officials said soldiers entered the house on Saturday night and later shifted her to hospital.

"Army doctors worked through the night to save the life of a severely injured... and through a Caesarean section delivered a baby girl," Northern Command spokesperson colonel N.N. Joshi said.

"Both the mother and baby are stable.''

Lance Naik Iqbal Ahmad and his father Ghulam Mohi-ud-din Sheikh were not as lucky. They were both killed by militants nearby.

The army said a 14-year-old boy has received gunshot wounds and is battling for his life. "He remains critical", the spokesperson said.

Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti visited the army hospital to enquire about the condition of those injured. Mehbooba met all the injured and wished them a speedy recovery.