New Delhi: A total of 87 Indian Army personnel have been awarded with awards on the occasion of 74th Independence Day on August 15.
Three army personnel will be conferred with the third highest peacetime gallantry award.
Lt Col KS Rawat of Parachute Regiment (Special Forces), Major Anil URS of 4 Maratha Light Infantry and Havildar Alok Kumar Dubey of Rajput Regiment 44 battalion of the Rashtriya Rifles have been named for the highest gallantry award being conferred this year.
These personnel showed exemplary courage while fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lt Col Rawat, was team leader of a mission oriented team deployed along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir for conduct of counter-infiltration and terrorist operations.
Major Anil is a company commander deployed along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir and Havildar Alok Kumar Dubey was also posted in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lt. Colonel Rawat was awarded the gallantry medal for leading his team into a 36 hour ambush of terrorists attempting to infiltrate.
He gave specific positions for two terrorists resulting in their successful elimination.
He also guided his team to safety from the retaliatory fire by the enemy and later located the remaining terrorists, eliminating two of them and grievously injuring others.
Major Anil laid an ambush based on intelligence inputs of terrorists’ movement across the LOC and their plans to cross the LC to attack Indian military personnel. He led his team efficiently to bring down five terrorists despite receiving heavy fire from enemy troops.
He is awarded the gallantry medal for “extraordinary leadership, nerves of steel and spirit of service before self.
Havildar Alok is awarded for “display” of raw courage in preventing terrorists from breaking a security cordon laid by his team and killing one dreaded terrorist belonging to the A++ category while blocking others from escaping, enabling his team to further tighten the cordon and eliminate all other terrorists.
A total of 65 Sena Medals, including five Bar to Sena Medals have been announced honouring army personnel for their dedicated services to the nation.
