Three soldiers honoured with Ashoka Chakra

Col Vasanth Venugopal, Capt Harshan R and Naib Subedar Chunni Lal have been awarded for their bravery in fighting the Valley's terrorists.

Three soldiers have been posthumously awarded the country’s highest peacetime award, the Ashoka Chakra, for outstanding bravery in fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir.

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They are Col Vasanth Venugopal of 9 Maratha Light Infantry, Capt Harshan R of 2 Para (Special Forces) and Naib Subedar Chunni Lal of 8 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry. The government also announced six Kirti Chakras, 20 Shaurya Chakras, two bar to Sena Medals, 99 Sena Medals and four Nao Sena Medals to be awarded to Armed Forces personnel.

Venugopal, whose battalion was deployed in the Uri sector, made the supreme sacrifice on July 31 but not before killing three terrorists. He led his men from the front to intercept a group of terrorists who were attempting to escape to PoK. Eight foreign terrorists were killed in this operation. Capt. Harshan R killed two hardcore terrorists in Lolab on March 20. Naib Subedar Chunni Lal foiled an infiltration bid in Kupwara and killed three terrorists on June 24 before laying down his life.

Kirti Chakra

: Naik Radhakrishnan C, 10 Madras Regiment (posthumous), Dayanand Pandey, Faizabad, (posthumous), Mohd Shan Ahmed, Jhansi, (posthumous) and Tarun Kumar Dutta, Guwahati, (posthumous), Captain Abhinav Handa of 9 Maratha Light Infantry and Lieutenant Pankaj Kumar of 7/11 Gorkha Rifles.

Shaurya Chakra

: Major P.S. Jamwal, Mechanised Infantry/ 9 RR, Major Pratul Gaurang Mehta, Arty/172 Field Regiment