Lt Col Karanbir Singh Natt breathed his last early this morning (Monday, December 25) at the Military Hospital, Jalandhar. Natt was in a coma for over eight years after a bullet hit his lower jaw in a counter-insurgency operation in Kupwara.
Lt Col Karanbir Singh Natt was the second-in-command (2IC) of the 160 Territorial Army Battalion (JAK Rifles) at the time of the incident in November 2015 while leading a combing operation against terrorists holed up in a village near Kupwara.
Lt Col Natt was a Sena Medal awardee. In 1998, Lt Col Natt was first commissioned in The Brigade of Guards as an officer under the Short Service Commission. Before being relieved from the regiment in 2012, he had served for 14 years. After serving as a Short Service Commission officer, he enlisted in the Territorial Army.
On November 25, 2015, a terrorist who was holed up in a hut in Haji Naka village in the Kupwara area of Jammu and Kashmir, close to the Line of Control, fired against Lt Col Natt, seriously injuring his face, especially his lower jaw. He had undergone urgent procedures to save his life by doctors at the Military Hospital in Srinagar and later at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in New Delhi.
Lt Col Natt’s father, Col Jagtar Singh Natt, recalled the tragic day. “It was November 2015 that my son got hit by bullets fired by a terrorist who had been hiding inside an abandoned hut in the dense forest in Kupwara. My son, too, fired back and killed the ultra, thus saving three of his men. He was airlifted to the Army Hospital Research and Referral, New Delhi. However, he suffered hypoxia and cardiac arrest. He remained there for 1.5 years and was later referred to the Military Hospital in Jalandhar,” he said
He further added, “Leaving my house in Batala with my younger brother, we all came here and settled in Jalandhar so that we could take care of him. The Army provided us accommodation.”
The family of Lt Col Natt originally belonged to the village Dhadiala Natt, near Batala. Lt Col Natt is survived by his wife Navpreet Kaur, and daughters, Guneet and Ashmeet.