Out Of The 12 Shaurya Chakra Awardees This Year, Nine Personnel Had Died In The Line Of Duty
President Ram Nath Kovind approved awards of 384 Gallantry and other Defence decorations to Armed Forces personnel and others on the eve of 73rd Republic Day celebrations.
These include 12 Shaurya Chakras, three Bar to Sena Medals (Gallantry), 81 Sena Medals (Gallantry), two Vayu Sena Medals (Gallantry), 29 Param Vishisht Seva Medal, four Uttam Yudh Seva Medal, 53 Ati Vishisht Seva Medal and 13 Yudh Seva Medal.
The list also includes 40 Sena Medal (Devotion to Duty), eight Nao Sena Medal (Devotion to Duty), 14 Vayu Sena Medal (Devotion to Duty), three Bar to Vishisht Seva Medal, 74 Vishisht Seva Medal, 16 Navy, and 32 Air Force.
Nine died in the line of duty
Out of the 12 Shaurya Chakras this year, nine will be posthumous to personnel who died in the line of duty.
Naib Subedar Sreejith M of the 17 Madras regiment was awarded the Shaurya Chakra (posthumously) for killing a terrorist in an operation in July 2021 in Jammu & Kashmir while carrying out search operations.
Havildar Anil Kumar Tomar of the Rajput Regiment was awarded the Shaurya Chakra (posthumously) for killing two terrorists while leading a Combat Action Team in Jammu and Kashmir in December 2020.
Havildar Kashiray Bammanalli of the Corps of Engineers was awarded the Shaurya Chakra (posthumously) for killing a terrorist in an operation around an orchard in the Pulwama district of Jammu & Kashmir. The havildar had also saved the lives of his team members during the operation.
Havildar Pinku Kumar of the Jat Regiment was awarded the Shaurya Chakra (posthumously) for killing a terrorist while blocking their escape route during an operation. He had seriously injured another terrorist before laying down his life.
Sepoy Maruprolu Jaswanth Kumar Reddy was awarded the Shaurya Chakra (posthumously) for killing a terrorist in a face-to-face gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir. He also saved the life of his team commander during the operation.
While he crawled forward to engage other terrorists, he saw his team commander severely injured due to the terrorists' fire, the Army stated.
Reddy immediately lobbed grenades to pin down the terrorists and swiftly crawled towards his team commander to pull him to cover, the note mentioned.
"In doing so, he came under heavy and effective fire of terrorists and sustained grievous injuries but disregarding his personal safety continued to engage the terrorists and pulled his team commander under cover, before succumbing to his injuries," it noted.
Country above all
Rifleman Rakesh Sharma of 5 Assam Rifles was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for killing two insurgents in an operation in Assam in July 2021.
He spotted two insurgents fleeing the ambush in cover of dense foliage, the Army mentioned.
"He immediately pursued through woods under covering fire of his buddy and closed in to cut off escape route," it noted.
Sharma shot dead one fleeing insurgent but being out of cover he drew heavy fire from the second insurgent, it stated.
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