UP: Shaurya Chakra for 'BAT-killer' Firozabad jawan Naib Subedar Vijay Kumar Yadav

AGRA: Naib Subedar Vijay Kumar Yadav of 15th Battalion Maratha Light Infantry regiment, who hails from Nagla Gulal village of Firozabad district, will be conferred with the Shaurya Chakra by President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Thursday.
Naib Subedar Yadav is among 20 men of the army and paramilitary - including three posthumously - who will receive the nation’s third highest gallantry award in peacetime.
Born in a farmer’s family, the 40-year-old is the eldest among two siblings and joined Indian Army in 1996. During his posting in Poonch sector of Jammu and Kashmir in February 2018, he, along with his team, showed exemplary leadership and courage beyond the call of duty and neutralized two Pakistan’s Special Forces men of BAT (border action team).
BAT is a special operations team originally created by the Special Services Group (SSG) of Pakistan army. They are trained in guerrilla and jungle warfare. The BAT is responsible for barbaric and inhumane act of beheading Indian soldiers along the Line of Control (LoC) to demoralise them. They came to light in Indian media more prominently, after they took away Lance Naik Hemraj's head leaving the remaining part of the body at LoC in 2013. He hailed from Shernagar village of Mathura district.

Speaking to TOI over the phone, Naib Subedar Yadav said, “It was my job to kill Pakistani infiltrators and foil their attack, or they would have killed our men. On February 18, at around 1,755 hours we received a distress message about a heavy attack at our military post by a BAT team of 8-10 men armed with RPGs, light machine guns and other weapons. The post was less than 200 metres away from my post, where I was leading a team of 14 jawans.”
“Without wasting a nano-second, I along with my four jawans moved towards the post which was hit with over two dozen RPGs in just two minutes. As soon as we reached the post, I shot down two BAT men and hurled a grenade which injured five of them. Because of the quick response, the Pakistani inflators withdrew fire and left all their gear and ammunitions behind. They took back their injured men, but left the two dead bodies behind,” he said.
“Later, we recovered a Pakistani flag along with medicines, ration, weapons, radio sets and night vision equipment and other items from the spot. BAT’s motive was to capture our post. On that day our team saved 14 jawans, one JCO and one officer who came under sudden attack by Pakistani infiltrators,” he added.
Expressing his happiness over being awarded with Shaurya Chakra, brave Naib Subedar Yadav said, “This honour is for my colleagues, my regiment and the Indian Army with whom I stand and protect the border. I’m also deeply thankful to my family, especially my wife Sunita, who understand my work and keeps herself strong in difficult situations.”
Speaking to TOI, Sunita Yadav said, “I’m proud of my husband and will continue to support him in all bad and good days.”
Meanwhile, Naib Subedar Vijay Kumar Yadav’s village erupted in joy. His father Radhey Shyam and brother Devesh Kumar Yadav shared sweets with their neighbours.