CHANDIGARH: Lt Col Karanbir Singh Natt, Sena Medal, died on Saturday in Military Hospital Jalandhar. He had been in a coma for the past eight years following severe injuries he sustained fighting terrorists in the Kupwara district of Jammu and Kashmir in 2015. It was confirmed by Brig BA Dhillon (retd), Director Sainik Welfare, Punjab, that Lt Col Natt had passed away. In November 2015, Lt Col Natt was leading a combing operation against terrorists holed up in a village near Kupwara while acting as the second-in-command (2IC) of 160 Territorial Army Battalion (JAK Rifles).
In 1998, Lt Col Natt was first commissioned in The Brigade of Guards as an officer under the Short Service Commission. Before being released 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 district of J&K, close to the Line of Control, fired upon Lt Col Natt, seriously injuring his face, especially his lower jaw. He had undergone frantic surgeries to save his life by doctors at the Military Hospital in Srinagar and later at the Army Research and Referral Hospital in New Delhi.
The original home of Lt Col Natt’s family is the village of Dhadiala Natt, which is close to Batala. His wife Navpreet Kaur and daughters Guneet and Ashmeet survive him.
