Army replaces MVC

MOHALI: In May this year, retired Lieutenant Colonel Tej Prakash Suri lost the last string — a Maha Vir Chakra — that helped him cling on to the memory of his martyred son Captain Gurjinder Suri.
After six months, the Army restored the missing link, delivering a replica of the medal, stolen by burglars and left untraced by the local police.
"Mental peace has returned to my family after the replica was delivered to us a few days ago.For the last six months, my family had been in agony that defy words. Now, the family's pride has been restored,"says Lt Gol Suri, talking about the MVC won by his son in an operation in Gulmarg sector of Jammu and Kashmir on November 9, 1999.
An Ordnance Corps officer, Capt Suri was on attachment with 12 Bihar and posted in J&K when his battalion was tasked to face the enemy in the Gulmarg sector.
He commanded his men in a combat that saw 17 kills in the enemy camp — two of them by the young captain. In the operation, Capt Suri became a martyr in the battleground, badly injured in a rocket-propelled grenade attack from the enemy.
"My son refused to be evacuated and continued to fight the enemy. That won him the Maha Vir Chakra,"says a proud Lt Col Suri, who was still in service as a Sikh Light Infantry officer when his son attained martyrdom.
Three years after his gallant act, Capt Suri was decorated with the second highest war decoration of the country.
Talking of the burglary, Lt Col Suri says: "My family was away in Ghaziabad to attend to my ailing father, an Army veteran himself. We got a call from our neighbours that the house had been broken into. We rushed back to find gold and silver articles stolen. More than these, the MVC medal was our prized possession, the only link to our martyred son."
In fact, Capt Suri was the third generation in the family to join Army service. Even his martyrdom failed to deter the family from sending more men to join the Army.
Capt Suri's brother joined the service, passing out of Officers' Training Academy in 2002.