Lt Col Shanti Swarup Rana

Lieutenant Colonel Shanti Swarup Rana was commissioned on 11 June 1977 in the Bihar Regiment. On 02 November 1996, Lt Col Swarup Rana while serving with 13 RR was entrusted with the task of destroying two terrorist camps in the Hephrude forest of Kupwara District in Jammu & Kashmir. He spotted four well fortified hideouts stocked heavily with arms and ammunition including tonnes of explosives. In a gallant and swift strike, he destroyed these hideouts. One more well concealed hideout came to his notice. During the action that followed, the terrorists resorted to heavy firing from their well fortified bunker. Lt Col Rana organised his troops, crawled towards the bunker and threw hand grenades inside. Two foreign mercenaries came out firing heavily. He killed both of them instantaneously.

Meanwhile, the terrorists seriously injured Lt Col Rana in heavy firing from another location. In spite of this, the gallant officer kept on boosting the morale of his soldiers. When one more terrorist advanced towards the soldiers, Lt Col Rana without caring for this own life, charged and killed him in a hand-to-hand encounter. In this action, this gallant officer sustained fatal bullet injuries and made the supreme sacrifice. Lt Col Rana displayed indomitable courage, patriotism and gallantry of the highest order. For this act of indomitable courage, Lt Col SS Rana was awarded the ASHOKA CHAKRA posthumously

Biodata

1. Rank & Name - Lt Col Shanti Swarup Rana, AC (Posthumously)

2. Unit/Regt - 13 RR Bn/BIHAR REGT

3. Name of Award - Ashok Chakra

4. Theatre of Ops - OP RAKSHAK

5. Year of Awards - 26 Jan 1997

6. City/ State of which belonged - Panchkula / Haryana

Read More..

Lt. Navdeep Singh - foiled a major infiltration bid from LOC

SRINAGAR: In first of its kind this year, army foiled a major infiltration bid from across along Line of Control (LoC) in Gurez sector of Bandipora district in north Kashmir on Saturday morning.

Twelve militants and an Army officer, Lieutenant Navdeep Singh, were killed and two jawans sustained injuries during the encounter, a Srinagar based defence spokesman Lt Col JS Brar said.

He said large group of heavily-armed militants was trying to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir from Gurez Valley from across Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in last night but the alert troops challenged the armed terrorists who opened fire and in the ensuing gun-battle five terrorists were killed while others fled back, Lt Col Brar added.

Lt Col Brar said, “Today morning, in the wee hours, at around 1am, our alert troops deployed on the LoC near Bagtor village in Gurez Sector of Bandipora district in north Kashmir intercepted a group of militants trying to infiltrate from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The group was intercepted when they were trying to cross the Kishanganga River in a Pneumatic boat. Kishanganga River at many places is the de-facto Line of Control between the two sides.”

“This is certainly a new development. The militants were also carrying an inflatable five-man dinghy. When contacted while crossing, a heavy exchange of gunfire ensued. While they tried to come ashore, six terrorists were killed and they fell into the river. Six more terrorists were killed near the shore in a fierce encounter. Five AK rifles, one pistol, two boats, 50 assorted grenades, two radio sets, two compasses and one global positioning system besides a large quantity of war like stores were recovered till reports last came in,” he added.

“In this operation, we lost a gallant officer, Lieutenant Navdeep Singh, besides injury to two of our jawans. A lively 26 year old officer, Navdeep was commissioned in March this year into the Army Ordnance Corps and was serving in 15th Battalion of the Maratha Light Infantry.

Read More..

Major Laishram Jyotin Singh

Major Laishram Jyotin Singh was an army doctor in the Indian Army Medical Corps, who died fighting a suicide bomber during the attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul. Major Singh was awarded the Ashoka Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award in the Indian Armed Forces on January 26, 2011

Laishram Singh was born in 1972 in Manipur, India. He was commissioned in the Army Medical Corps in 2003, and was posted with the Indian Embassy in Kabul in 2010. Just thirteen days after his commissioning, a suicide bomber attacked the guarded residential compound where he was staying. Major Singh confronted the terrorist unarmed and forced him to detonate his vest, which resulted in his death. He was awarded the Ashok Chakra "For his act of exemplary courage, grit, selflessness and valour in the face of a terrorist attack, resulting in his sacrifice and saving 10 of his colleagues

Read More..

Captain Davinder Singh Jass

AT 23, Devinder Singh Jass had the world at his feet. Armed with an engineering degree and three months away from his MBA, Jass had already landed a job in one of the world's top accounting firms, Deloitte.

But fate, as they call it, had other ideas.

Ever since childhood, Jass had wanted to join the army. Having completed his schooling from Guru Har Kishan Public School near India Gate, he enrolled for a degree in computer engineering at IIIT, Allahabad.

While pursuing engineering, he applied for the army but could not clear the test.

He then enrolled for MBA at GLA, Mathura.

He tried once again to get into the army and a few months before getting his MBA degree, he joined the Indian Military Academy (IMA).

From there on he volunteered for the special forces and after three months of gruelling training, he was inducted into the 1 Parachute Regiment. He was posted in Kupwara.

On Tuesday, 26-year-old Captain Jass along with Naik Selva Kumar and paratrooper Imtiyaz Ahmad Thokar died fighting terrorists in Sopore's Chinkipora area, 54 kilometres from Srinagar.

The only son of Dalbir Kaur and Bhupinder Singh, Captain Jass was supposed to be home for Holi at their Mahagun Mansion in Indirapuram.

Instead, his father will be receiving the body on Thursday.

"I am a believer in fate. If something has to happen, you can't prevent it," Bhupinder said philosophically.

Captain Jass's mother is sick and bedridden while his elder sister Harpreet is a professor of education at Jamia Millia University.

"Very few people get to do what they want in life. That way, he was lucky to have achieved what he wanted," Bhupinder added.

"Since childhood he was very passionate about joining the Indian Army. We left the choice to him," he said.

A soft-spoken man, Captain Devender singh Jass was full of courage. "He was never afraid of taking risks. He opted to become a para-commando and went for training with 1 Para in J& K. He said he was very happy." Talking about his son, Bhupinder said, "He was so adamant to join the army that he took the entrance exam a second time and cleared it.

"He had three months to go for the completion of his MBA programme when a private firm selected him through campus placement." The last time his parents talked to him was on Saturday. He had also spoken to a friend of his on Monday before leaving for the operation to flush out terrorists hiding in a building in Chinkipora.

"Since Tuesday morning, we had this intuition that something was wrong. We even tried to contact him but failed.

"In the evening the Commanding Officer informed us about our son's death. What can we do, we have to accept the reality," Bhupinder said.

Captain Jass and his compatriots at 1 Para got information about the terrorists meeting in a building in Chinkipora. A search was launched and in the gunbattle, Jass, Kumar and Thokar died. Two militants were also killed in the encounter.

Read More..