117 Soldiers Get Army Medals For Fighting Terrorism, Infiltration

One lieutenant general and two major generals were among 117 soldiers awarded for gallantry and distinguished service as the Indian Army's northern command conducted an investiture ceremony in Udhampur to honour its personnel deployed in the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

General-Officer-Commanding-in-Chief Lt Gen Upendra Dwivedi presented the awards to officers, junior commissioned officers, and other ranks.

Ninety-two gallantry awards were presented to those who showed exemplary courage under extreme circumstances and 25 distinguished service awards were presented for selfless service to the nation, a defence spokesman said. Out of the 92 gallantry awards, 19 of them were awarded posthumously to the relatives of the soldiers who were killed during combat.

They included Major Mayank Vishnoi of 44 Rashtriya Rifles (Rajput), who had rescued 12 trapped civilians and killed a terrorist during an anti-militancy operation in the valley.

Another was Sepoy Chandan Kumar of 16 Bihar, who had shown exemplary courage during the Snow Leopard operation in Galwan valley in Ladakh, where Chinese and Indian troops were engaged for days in an aggressive face-off along the Sino-Indian border in May 2020.

Subedar Sukhdev Singh (16 Grenadiers), Havaldar Gokaran Singh (21 Kumaon), Hav Hardhan Chandra Roy (59 Med regiment), Naib Subedar Ravinder (16 Grenadiers), Naik Gurcharan Singh (14 Punjab), Gunner Bupender (327 Med regiment), and Sepoy Rohin Kumar (14 Punjab) were awarded Sena Medal posthumously for sacrificing their lives on the Line of Control (LoC) fighting ceasefire violations from across the border.

Three paratroopers - Balkrishan, Chhatrapal Singh, and Amit Kumar (all from 4 para special forces) - were honoured with the Sena Medal posthumously for eliminating several heavily armed terrorists trying to infiltrate through the LoC.

Naib Subedar Rajwinder Singh (1 Sikh LI) had foiled an attempt by terrorists to storm a post and killed one of them on August 29, 2020.

Naik Rajesh Kumar (21 RR), Sepoy Prashant Sharma (50 RR), Lance Naik Dinesh Singh (21 RR), and Raj Singh (10 RR), Jilajeet Yadav (53 RR), Rahul Rainswal (50 RR) demonstrated their courage during several anti-terrorist operations before making the supreme sacrifice.

Lt Gen Amardeep Singh Aujila, under whose command army troops killed eight hardcore terrorists and foiled nine infiltration attempts, was among four recipients of Yudh Sewa Medal.

Others who were awarded the medal are Brigadier K Ranjeev Singh, Colonel Pradeep Singh Saun, and Col Punyabachi Mohanty.

Brigadier Singh had successfully set up a new brigade and made it operation-ready, while Colonel Saun had led his troops from 42 Rashtriya Rifles to face a challenging situation in south Kashmir's Tral belt which led to neutralisation of 16 terrorists in eight successful operations.

Col Mohanty was awarded for his role in anti-terrorist operations in J&K and his vital contribution during snow leopard operation in Ladakh.

Eleven brigadiers, 19 Colonel and Lt Colonels and 23 Majors, Captains and Lieutenants too got award.

Lt Col (now Col) Rajkumar Pallab was awarded Bar to Sena Medal (Gallantry).

Seventy-one soldiers received Sena Medal (Gallantry), 10 Sena Medal (distinguished), and 11 others Vishisht Sena Medal.

Maj Gen Rajiv Kumar Singh (Headquarters 91 Sub-area) and Maj Gen Ajay Chandpuria (headquarter 19 division) were awarded with Vishisht Sena Medal.

Presenting the awards, Lt Gen Dwivedi said, "I congratulate all the awardees and their proud families, whose singular acts of valour and selfless sacrifice have been instrumental in our success."