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. On February 26, 2010, Major Singh fought a suicide bomber during an attack on the residential compound of the Indian embassy in Kabul. During the attack, a terrorist fired bursts into the rooms and started throwing hand grenades. On hearing the shouts of five unarmed officers, Major Singh charged with bare hands at the armed terrorist and pinned him down. “He continued to grapple with the armed terrorist and did not let him go till the terrorist panicked and detonated his suicide vest, resulting in the instantaneous death of the terrorist and martyrdom of Major Laishram Jyotin Singh,” the ministry of defence (MoD) stated.
The Kirti Chakra has been awarded to Major Rahul Gurung for the courage shown by him in fighting terrorists in the Ukhrul district of Manipur in February 2010.
The four other Army personnel awarded the Kirti Chakra have been given the gallantry award for fighting terrorists in Jammu and Kashmir. These are Capt. Deepak Sharma (who will receive the award posthumously), Lt. Vikas Sharma, Lt. V.A. Deshmukh, and Naik Rajinder Singh. Capt. Deepak Sharma will be awarded the Kirti Chakra posthumously for the gallantry shown in an encounter in Pulwama (Kashmir) where he killed three terrorists before succumbing to a bullet wound in the neck.
Of the 21 Shaurya Chakra awardees, five awardees — Col. Neeraj Sood, Havildar Dayal Singh, Lance Naik A.K. Sharma, Sepoy S.K. Singh, and Sepoy Sangat Singh — have been given the award posthumously. These five Army personnel had shown exemplary courage in encounters with terrorists during counter-insurgency operations, and had made the supreme sacrifice for the country.