Shaheed
Rifleman Sanjay Kumar
Real life
hero, Rifleman Sanjay Kumar
KT NEWS
SERVICE
JAMMU, Aug
17: Killing five enemy personnel, lifting a machine
gun while hit by a bullet in thigh muscle, lobbying
a grenade and clearing a important army post.
It is not a
narration of any popular bollywood film but a real
life scene enacted by Rifleman Sanjay Kumar of the
13 JAK Rif in "Operation Vijay" while
capturing army post in the Mushkoh Valley.
He was awarded
Param Vir Chakara and only one of handfull of
personnel to be conferred this highest military
award. Little did the PVC awardee know that his act
would bring this laurel, for him it was a part of
the duty which was executed with perfection.
The 13 JAK Rif
is the only unit in the history of independent India
to be awarded with two PVCs in a single operation.
The other one was awarded to Capt. Vikram Batra who
laid down his life in the defence of country.
On July 5, the
Rifleman was a part of a Charlie Company that was
ordered to clear point 4875 in the Mushok valley.
The advance has to be deliberate as the post was
well held by the intruders with remotest chance of
returning alive.
After
suffering initial causality a final assault was
launched in the wee hours of July 5. It was defining
moment in the career of Rifleman when he was asked
to lead the attack. He charged from the front and
managed to clear the sangar by killing intruders.
But this was
not the final movement, as he ran out of ammunition
the Rifleman was hit by two bullets in his thigh. On
noticing the presence of intruders in near sangar he
snatched a UMG from the Pak solider killed by him
and captured the second sangar also. His daring
attack and in effectively engaging the enemy
personnel led to the capture of Point 4875.
Determined and highly resolved to get the post
clear, he refused to get vacated till the entire was
cleared.
In the entire
sequence of event which lasted for some hours he
killed about 6 enemy soliders besides inflicting
injury on many others. Rifleman Sanjay Kumar
nonchalant of the entire episode as he could not
count the number of soldiers killed by him. The
number of ascertained by the rescue team.
The 13 JAK
Rifles moved to base of Tololing feature on 5 June,
99. The unit was tasked to capture the Area hump
upto Rockey Knoll and clear point 5140. The point
5140 dominated the Leh-Srinagar highway. A day
attack was launched on 17 June and area upto Rocky
Knoll was captured after heavy hand to hand
fighting, without any loss of own troops. In the
operation 8 Pakistan (Northern Light Infantry)
soldiers were killed and 9 critically injured. The
unit recovered large quantity of arms and
ammunition.
For Rifleman
Sanjay Kumar, this was not end of journey. Coming
from a family with strong inkling for bet force, as
his second brother is also a sepoy with ITBP, he is
ready to put his life at risk for the cause of
nation.
Nation's
highest wartime gallantry award PARAM VIR CHAKRA was
awarded to Rifleman Sanjay Kumar on 15th August 1999.
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