NEW DELHI: The nation’s third-highest gallantry medal
Shaurya Chakra
has been awarded to five
Army soldiers
, an
Assam Rifles jawan
and six
CRPF personnel
— nine of them posthumously — in the
Republic Day awards
this year.
The
Shaurya Chakra awardees
from the Army, who all laid down their lives while killing terrorists in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir, are Naib Subedar Sreejith M (17 Madras), Havildars Anil Kumar Tomar (Rajput/44 Rashtriya Rifles), Kashiray Bammanalli (Engineers/44 RR), Pinku Kumar (Jat/34 RR) and Sepoy Maruprolu Jaswanth Kumar Reddy (17 Madras).
The CRPF awardees, who have got it posthumously, are head constables Ajeet Singh and Kuldeep Kumar Urawan, constables Vikas Kumar and Purnanad. The others are company commandant Dilip Malik and assistant commandant Anirudh Pratap Singh. Rifleman Rakesh Kumar of 5 Assam Rifles has also been awarded the medal for a counter-insurgency operation in Assam.
Republic Day live updatesThough the highest medal
Ashoka Chakra
and the second Kirti Chakra have not been awarded in the overall 384 gallantry and other awards list this year, three have been conferred with the Sena Medal for gallantry the second time. They are Majors Bharat Singh Jhala (Jat/34 RR) and Jagtar Johal (Rajput/44 RR), and Havidar Naseer Ahmad Mir (Territorial Army).
Four senior officers, including the previous 14 Corps commander in Ladakh, Lt-Gen PGK Menon, have got the Uttam Yudh Sena Medals. The others are Lt-Gens D P Pandey (15 Corps), Ravin Khosla (4 Corps) and Johnson P Mathew (3 Corps).