Army personnel visit the Pampore attack site on Sunday where three soldiers were killed on Saturday. Tribune photo

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 18

The Army today released the identities of the three soldiers who were killed in an ambush yesterday in a town outside Srinagar city.In a statement, the Army said Naik Ratheesh C, 35, Gunner Farate Sourabh Nandkumar, 33, and Gunner Shashikant Pander, 24, were killed in yesterday’s attack near Pampore.The Army said Ratheesh had joined the Army in 2001 and hailed from Kotolipram village of Kerala, Nandkumar had joined the Army in 2004 and was from Bhekrai Nagar village of Pune, while Pandey had four years of service and hailed from Dhanabad district of Jharkhand.The three soldiers were killed on Saturday afternoon when militants opened fire on a convoy of Army vehicles on the Srinagar-Jammu highway near Pampore town. The identities of the martyred soldiers are withheld till the next of their kin are informed by the Army.The Army today paid “befitting tributes” to the three soldiers at a ceremony at Badamibagh cantonment, which houses the headquarters of 15 Corps. Lt Gen JS Sandhu, commander of the 15 Corps, led the tributes for the soldiers and offered wreath to them.“Many senior officials from the civil administration, including Divisional Commissioner Baseer Ahmed Khan, and other security agencies, including police, CRPF, BSF and SSB, joined Lt Gen JS Sandhu, Chinar Corps Commander, and all ranks in paying homage to the martyrs on behalf of a proud nation,” the Army said in its statement.