Classmates of an Army officer from Maharashtra, who laid down his life battling militants near the Line of Control (LoC) in north Kashmir's Kupwara district in 2015, have sent 300 kg sweets to soldiers in his unit.
Col Santosh Mahadik, the Commanding Officer of 41 Rashtriya Rifles, had sustained serious injuries during the operation in the Haji Naka forest area of Kupwara in November 2015. He succumbed to his injuries at a hospital later.
Col Mahadik was an alumnus of Sainik School, Satara in Maharashtra.
His classmates sent boxes of Diwali sweets, weighing 300 kg, to personnel of the 41 Rashtriya Rifles, for distribution among the soldiers Col Mahadik once commanded.
“Like we do every Diwali, this time also we thought of his comrades in arms, who suffer harsh climes and the enemy from across the border. We thought this would be a nice gesture for soldiers, who spend Diwali away from their families,” a classmate of Col Mahadik told news agency PTI.
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Col Mahadik's classmates, who include several serving and retired officers from the armed forces, have launched the initiative which they call 'Operation Diwali'. The sweets reached Kupwara on Friday and will be taken to the border posts where they will be distributed among the soldiers.
An officer from the elite 21 Para-Special Forces unit, Col Mahadik was awarded a Sena Medal for gallantry during Operation Rhino in the North-East in 2003.
His friends remember him as an all-rounder as he was a good goalkeeper, a skilled horse-rider, and a tough boxer.
