948 security personnel get gallantry awards

NEW DELHI: An army havildar who laid down his life while killing four armed intruders in Kashmir was honoured with the Ashok Chakra, the highest peace time army

NEW DELHI: An army havildar who laid down his life while killing four armed intruders in Kashmir was honoured with the Ashok Chakra, the highest peace time army gallantry award, and NSG’s Lieutenant Colonel Niranjan EK was given the Shaurya Chakra posthumously for his supreme sacrifice at the time of the Pathankot attack.

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The government awarded 948 central and state forces police personnel with gallantry and other service medals on the eve of Independence Day.

Army havildar Hangpan Dada was posthumously honoured with the Ashok Chakra for eliminating four heavily-armed intruders from Pak-occupied Kashmir.

Lt Col Niranjan was the head of the NSG bomb disposal unit that was rushed to Pathankot after the terrorist strike on January 2. He died while sanitising a terrorist’s body that was booby-trapped with a hand grenade. In all, the government announced one Ashok Chakra, 14 Shaurya Chakras, 63 Sena Medals, two Nau Sena Medals and two Vayu Sena Medals.

Among seven President’s police medal (PPMG) for gallantry, three went to Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) personnel for thwarting terrorist attacks at Indian consulates at Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad in Afghanistan early this year. Seven other ITBP personnel—Sandip Ghosh, Harinandan Gururani, Satish Kumar, Mohardhwaj, Dinesh Sharma, Ravindra Singh and Bhoopendra -- were given the police medal for gallantry (PMG).

One PPMG was given to CRPF inspector Gulam Nabi Bhat and three more went to policemen from Telangana for undertaking daring operations.

The CRPF was decorated with the maximum number of these bravery medals at 43, with most of them going to personnel serving in Maoist-affected states.