E-Paper
Brave BSF men who died fighting smugglers and militants, awarded
Monday was fatally injured after smugglers crashed their four-wheeler into Mondal, who succumbed four days later on October 20 in Kolkata, where had been taken for better treatment.
A Border Security Force (BSF) officer who was killed fighting cattle smugglers along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Tripura and personnel responsible for blocking infiltration of terrorists and firing by Pakistan have been awarded police gallantry medals on the eve of the 71st Republic Day.
A total of nine BSF personnel have been awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG), six of them being posthumous, a force spokesperson told PTI.
Second-in-command rank officer Dipak Kumar Mondal, along with his team, intercepted cattle smugglers in the dead of the night near an unfenced border area in the Sipahijala district of Tripura in October 2017, but were attacked with stones, bricks and sharp-edged weapons.
Monday was fatally injured after smugglers crashed their four-wheeler into Mondal, who succumbed four days later on October 20 in Kolkata, where had been taken for better treatment.
“In recognition of his act of raw courage, conspicuous gallant action and display of the highest level of bravery, late Shri Dipak Kumar Mondal has been awarded the PMG,” says the citation.
Assistant Sub-Inspector Sat Narayan Yadav and Constable Vijay Kumar Pandey have also been honoured posthumously along with Assistant Sub Inspector Vijay Karan Singh, for effectively countering Pakistan’s unprovoked firing in Jammu along the International Border (IB) on June 3, 2018.
Head Constable Santosh Kumar and Constable Chandrappa Lamani have been awarded the PMG for foiling an infiltration bid in Kashmir in February 2017 and eliminating a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist in the gun battle.
Another BSF jawan, Constable Tapan Mondal, who was killed in firing by Pakistan along the International Border in Jammu in November 2017, has been awarded the PMG for keeping his colleagues safe.
Constables Devendra Singh and Brijendra Bahadur Singh have also been awarded the gallantry medal (posthumously) for displaying bravery along the Pak border in September 2017. The BSF is primarily tasked to guard Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh apart from being deployed to conduct anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.
