President Pratibha Patil will confer the Ashok Chakra — the country’s highest gallantry award in peacetime — posthumously on Major Laishram Jyotin Singh of the Army Medical Corps on Republic Day this year for his act of gallantry in Kabul during an attack by terrorists in February 2010.
The announcement of the gallantry award for Major Singh had first been made on the eve of Independence Day in 2010. The government also announced the award of the Kirti Chakra — the second-highest gallantry award during peacetime — to five Army personnel, one of them posthumously. Twenty-one armed forces personnel have also been awarded the Shaurya Chakra — the third highest gallantry award during peacetime. Major Laishram Jyotin Singh hailed from Manipur and was commissioned into the AMC in 2003.