SRINAGAR: Lt Col Karanbir Singh Natt, who had been in a coma for the past eight years due to severe injuries sustained while combatting militants in Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir in 2015, has passed away at the Military Hospital Jalandhar on Saturday.
Brig BA Dhillon (retd), Director Sainik Welfare, Punjab, confirmed the demise of Lt Col Natt, stating that he served as the second-in-command (2IC) of 160 Territorial Army Battalion (JAK Rifles) during the incident in November 2015.
Originally commissioned as a Short Service Commission officer in The Brigade of Guards in 1998, Lt Col Natt served in the regiment for 14 years before being relieved from service in 2012. Subsequently, he joined the Territorial Army.
In November 2015, while leading a combing operation against terrorists near Kupwara, Lt Col Natt sustained grievous injuries to his face, particularly the lower jaw, when a militant in Haji Naka village fired upon him. Despite extensive surgeries in Military Hospital Srinagar and Army Research and Referral Hospital New Delhi, he remained in a critical condition.
Lt Col Natt, originally from village Dhadiala Natt near Batala, is survived by his wife Navpreet Kaur and daughters Guneet and Ashmeet.
On November 22, 2015, a Kalashnikov bullet shattered Lt Col Natt’s lower jaw at Haji Naka village, seven kilometres from the Kupwara Line of Control. Describing the unique injury, an Army Medical Corps (AMC) officer stated, “The lower half of the face gone, the tongue hanging loose, he was unable to lie back, as the tongue would fall back and obstruct his air passage.”
During the initial two days of battling to save Lt Col Natt, the AMC team performed emergency tracheotomy, and blood transfusion, and engaged a surgical team. Despite the severe injury, EEG and MRI scans showed no damage to the brain/spine, and he was eventually taken off the life-support system at Army Hospital Research and Referral (AHRR).
