Ex-Indian colonel killed in Gaza was counter-terror specialist, UN peacekeeper

Colonel Waibhav Anil Kale (retd), who was working for the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (DSS) and was killed when his vehicle was attacked at Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Monday, was a counter-terrorism specialist who also served as a UN peacekeeper before he took premature retirement from the Indian Army in July 2022, officials aware of the matter said on Tuesday. He was 46.

An alumnus of the National Defence Academy (NDA), Khadakwasla, Kale was commissioned into the 11th Battalion Jammu and Kashmir Rifles (JAKRIF) in June 2000 and was known to be an outstanding officer who held a wide range of appointments during his 22-year military service, the officials said. This is the first time an international staff member of the UN has died since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict last October.

The officer commanded his battalion, 11 JAKRIF, in Punjab (Mamun and Dera Baba Nanak), served in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a UN peacekeeper and was an instructor at the Infantry School in Mhow, HT has learnt. He is survived by his wife Amrita and two children who live in Nagpur.

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Before joining NDA in 1996, he attended school in Nagpur.

Before he left the army, Kale was the deputy commander of a counter-insurgency formation in Kishtwar for almost two years, the officials said, adding that he worked with Amazon in Delhi for a year after taking early retirement.

“He was a competent and experienced officer who had served in conflict zones. He was also known for his sense of humour,” said one of the officials.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Col Waibhav Kale, working for the UN Department of Safety and Security in Gaza. Our deepest condolences are with the family during this difficult time,” the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, New York, wrote on X.