ITBP commandos, who lost their lives in Afghanistan have been awarded the gallantry awards.
Ten ITBP commandos, who valiantly thwarted terrorist strikes on Indian Consulates in Afghanistan, have been accorded top police gallantry medals on the eve of the 70th Independence Day.
The attacks took place at the Indian Consulates of Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad on January 3 and March 2. The Indo-Tibetan Border Police was tasked to provide security to the Indian Embassy in capital Kabul and the four Consulates, with Heart and Kandahar being the other two.
The Indian facilities in Afghanistan face threats from al-Qaeda and other affiliated terrorist groups.
While ITBP Inspector Subhash Chandra, Head Constable Virendra Singh and Constable Sunil Bisht have been decorated with the country's top President Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG), seven others including Inspector Dinesh Sharma, HC Mohardhwaj and Constables Sandeep Ghosh, Harinandan Gurunani, Satish Kumar, Ravinder Singh and Bhupender Singh have been awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG).
The citation for the men of the mountain-trained force said their "quick reaction with total disregard to their own safety and braving intense hostile gun and rocket fire resulted in elimination and injury to terrorists and compelled other fidayeens to run for shelter in adjacent buildings."
It said the commandos "firmly stood their ground amidst heavy firing of rocket shells and bullets" on both the occasions when these vital Indian assets in Afghanistan came under attack.
It said that during the Jalalabad attack, the ITBP men "exercised exemplary fire discipline and valour by not retaliating with in-discriminatory fire otherwise such action would have invited collateral loss to the arriving Afghan reinforcements."
The 85,000 personnel strong force, raised in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese conflict, has earlier too received gallantry decorations for its work in Afghanistan including military medals.
The force is primarily tasked to guard the 3,488 km-long Sino-India frontier apart from rendering a variety of internal security duties including conducting anti-Naxal operations.