Captain Ashutosh Kumar laid down his life in the line of duty on 8 November 2020 while fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district
File photo of Captain Ashutosh Kumar. ANI
Captain Ashutosh Kumar on Tuesday received posthumous Shaurya Chakra from President Ram Nath Kovind.
The late officer was among 13 who were conferred with the country’s third-highest gallantry award.
The award ceremony, held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, was attended by the braveheart’s parents.
Who was Captain Ashutosh Kumar and why he received Shaurya Chakra
A resident of village Parmanpur in Bihar’s Madhepura, Captain Ashutosh Kumar laid down his life in the line of duty in November 2020.
He has two sisters while his father works in a veterinary hospital and mother is a housewife, according to Hindustan Times.
He had completed his schooling from Sainik School in Odisha’s Bhubaneswar.
After finishing school, Kumar joined the 132nd course at the National Defence Academy in Pune. From there, he went on to complete his military training at the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun.
The 24-year-old officer was killed during a counter-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara, near the Line of Control (LoC), on the intervening night of 8 November, 2020.
At the time, he was deployed with the 18th battalion of the Army’s Madras Regiment.
The troops were often engaged in counter-insurgency operations on a regular basis as the area was affected by active militancy. The LoC also witnessed ceasefire violations without any warning.
Apart from manning the forward posts in Machil sector in Kupwara, Kumar’s unit also undertook operations to check infiltration bids. The BSF patrol reported such an infiltration attempt at around 1 am about 3.5km from the LoC.
A gun battle ensued between the 18 Madras along with Kumar’s unit and the militants. While three militants were killed during the fire fight, Kumar and four of his comrades also received gun shots and were severely injured.
Havildar Praveen Kumar, Rifleman Ryada Maheshwar and Border Security Force (BSF) jawan Sudip Kumar also laid down their lives in the same operation.
With inputs from agencies
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