8 Facts You Need To Know About Martyr NSG Commando Lt. Colonel Niranjan Kumar

National Security Guards commando Lt Col Niranjan Kumar was among the 7 martyrs slain in the ongoing gunfight against Pakistani terrorists who attacked the Pathankot airbase under the cover of darkness on Saturday.

His last words were to his father: ¡°Dad! I am on an operation¡±

"I had called him last evening around 5pm. I was taking my evening walk as usual and I wanted to get some information from him. When I called, he said he was in an operation and he will call me back," said Shivarajan EK, Lt Col Niranjan's father.

He was the head of NSG's elite bomb squad

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Commissioned in the Engineers Regiment of the Army in 2004, he was assigned to a "mopping up procedure" on the encounter spot .

He died in action, defusing a grenade

Lt. Col. Kumar was killed while defusing a live grenade from the body of a terrorist. He was fatally injured by grenade splinters and sharpnels.

He was head of the elite bomb squad of the NSG and an "explosives expert".

He recently promoted to Lt. Colonel, he was posted in New Delhi as as a commando.

He wanted to be in the army because he loved the uniform

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"Since his young age he was interested in the armed forces. He opted for short service commission and when we asked why not air force or navy, he said he was in love with the olive green," his father said.

He joined the National Security Guards shortly after his wedding

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Niranjan told the family about getting into the National Security Guards, just after his wedding. "Around 2 years back he came on leave from Jammu and Kashmir for his wedding. As he was leaving, he told me that he was getting into the NSG and he was very excited about it. He was in NSG Delhi for 1 year and 10 months," his father said.

A tough family life

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His older sister Bhagya Lakshmi said her brother was like Arjuna who fought in his Karmabhoomi. "We lost our mother when he was four years old and he had difficult personal life growing up. The country shouldn't remember him just as a soldier who laid down his life but a man faced a lot of struggles to achieve his dream," she said.

He is survived by his wife Dr Radhika and a one-and-a half-year-old daughter Vismaya