'Keep my loaf, I will eat later,' said lensman before dying

Samba: 'Keep my loaf there. I will eat it later' were the last words of local English daily lensman Ashok Sodhi, who died in the fierce encounter between security forces and militants here, to his colleagues.

Refusing his collegues' request to have breakfast with them, Sodhi choose to capture the ongoing encounter amid flying bullets in Rakh Ambh Batali village in the district on Sunday.

'Keep my loaf there. I will eat it later. Do not eat my loaf, which I would eat after a taking a fine shot,' Sodhi told his colleagues. In a twist of fate, instead of capturing the action, the lensmen fell prey to a militants' bullet which pierced through his head, killing him.

With an illustrious career spanning 25 years in photo journalism, 45-year-old Sodhi is survived by his wife and daughter.