CHANDIGARH, Aug 25: The ongoing counter-insurgency operations in the Kashmir Valley and the North East have claimed the lives of two more officers from the city and its vicinity.

Those who died are Major P P S Sidhu, resident of Sector 15, and Major Depinder Bhuchar, Sector 4, Panchkula. Depinder is the third officer from the town to be killed during active service in Kashmir. A 30-year-old officer from 24 Punjab Regiment, Depinder was killed on Sunday when Pakistani troops resorted to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) in Srinagar.

``My only support is gone,'' said his father, R C Bhuchar, a retired senior accounts officer from the Indian Accounts and Audit Department. Depinder, or Deepak as he was called by his family, was a bachelor. He had told his father that he would get married after his tenure in Srinagar. ``He was aggressive and adventurous and believed in taking risks,'' recalled his brother-in-law Anil Sethi.

Depinder's body was cremated with full military honours here today. Senior Army officers as well as family members and well-wishers attended the funeral. A guard of honour and a three-gun salute was given to the departed soldier.

Meanwhile, a pall of gloom descended on the house of Major P P S Sidhu in Sector 15 here, as news came in that he had died fighting in Assam.His father, Gurdev Singh Sidhu, a retired teacher from the Chandigarh Education Department, was in a state of shock. His mother, Gurdeep Kaur, recalled that during the Passing out Parade in December 1991 he had told her: ``You have given one of your sons to the country and now you should forget about me''.

He was married 10 years back and has two children -- nine-year-old Simran and five-year-old Karan ``Has he forgotten that I am here, '' asked Simran when she was told that her father would never return.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.