E-Paper
939 president police medals this Republic Day; J&K police bags most
Officials from the Jammu & Kashmir Police bagged 115 of the 189 gallantry medals, followed by 30 to the Central Reserve Police Force and 10 to the Chhattisgarh Police
New Delhi:
Nine hundred and thirty-nine police personnel were honoured with the President’s police medals on the occasion of Republic Day, with officials from the Jammu & Kashmir Police bagging 115 of the 189 gallantry medals, followed by 30 to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and 10 to the Chhattisgarh Police.
In all, 134 of the gallantry medals were awarded for action in counter-insurgency operations in the Jammu & Kashmir region alone.
Government officials said that 662 of the medals were given for meritorious service, and 88 medals for distinguished service.
Apart from operations in Jammu & Kashmir, security personnel were awarded for their role in combating counter-insurgency in Naxal-affected states, the northeast, and on India’s international borders, and for displaying extraordinary policing and investigation skills.
Among the officers from J&K, additional director general of police, Jammu, Mukesh Singh, received a medal for distinguished service.
The citation of the awardees shared by the home ministry said that J&K Police was instrumental in eliminating terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Hizbul-Mujahideen, including neutralising or capturing some top terrorists such as Kalimullah, alias Saifullah, Shahid Ahmad Bhat, and Hilal Ahmad Bhat, among others.
A total of 182 terrorists, including 44 top commanders of various outfits, were killed in J&K last year.
Senior Delhi Police officer, deputy commissioner of police Sanjeev Kumar Yadav of the 2008 Batla House encounter fame, received his 11th President’s police medal for gallantry, a rare feat by any officer.
Of the 662 police medals for meritorious service, personnel from the Uttar Pradesh Police received 73 medals, followed by CRPF (57), Border Security Force (46), and Maharashtra Police (40).
At least 29 officers of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) also received medals for distinguished and meritorious services, including the agency’s joint director in Bhopal, Ramnish Geer, deputy inspector general, Kolkata, Akhilesh Kumar Singh (who supervised investigations in the post-poll violence in West Bengal), and additional superintendent of police, Delhi, Anil Kumar Yadav (who is investigating actor the Sushant Singh Rajput death case).
Eighteen Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel were awarded police medals for meritorious and distinguished service. On Independence Day 2021, 20 troopers of the border guarding force deployed in eastern Ladakh, who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with the Indian Army in keeping Chinese troops at bay in the Galwan Valley and the Gogra Hot Springs clashes in 2020, were awarded gallantry medals.
The Galwan Valley clash of June 15, 2020, was the first deadly skirmish between Indian and Chinese troops along the Line of Actual Control in more than five decades, which pushed the relationship between the two countries to breaking point. It left 20 Indian soldiers and an undisclosed number of Chinese troops dead.
Apart from 939 medals for police personnel, 42 personnel from fire services were also awarded President’s Fire Service medals. In addition, 25 personnel or volunteers were awarded Home Guard and Civil Defence medals.
