nGallant role in the counter-terrorism grid of Jammu & Kashmir has fetched the Central Security forces maximum gallantry medals amongst the 180 such decorations announced by the Government on the eve of the Independence Day. A total of 114 gallantry medals have been given to the troops deployed in J&K and
62 such medals in the Naxal-affected States.
Four gallantry medals were announced for Central forces for their counter-insurgency operations in the
North Eastern States.
The Centre announced as many as 946 medals for personnel and officers of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) and state police forces, out of which three have been decorated with the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG) while 177 have been awarded the PMG.
Nine personnel have been given these bravery medals posthumously, a Home Ministry statement said.
In keeping with the tradition, the CRPF has bagged the maximum, 75 gallantry medals followed by 61 by the J&K Police, 23 by Odisha police, nine by police personnel from Chhattisgarh, a major Naxal-affectedState, and five each by the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force (ITBP).
Likewise, 89 police personnel have been given the President’s Police Medal for distinguished service and 677 have been awarded the police medal for meritorious service.
A total of 56 personnel have been awarded fire service medals and 44 officials have been given the home guard and civil defence medal.
Forty personnel have also been awarded the correctional service medals that are given to prison staffers who guard and manage jails in various States.
The CRPF bagged the Kirti Chakra and two Shaurya Chakras for counter-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir and in the anti-Naxal combat theatre.
Harshpal Singh, now promoted in the Second-in-Command rank from Deputy Commandant, and his buddy constable Zaker Hussain have been decorated with the military medals for killing “three dreaded terrorists of Jaish-e-Mohammed” in September last year in Jammu.
“Both these brave hearts took bullets and grenade splinters fired by the terrorists but they held their ground till they gunned down all the three terrorists hiding behind a house,” reads the their citation.
Singh has been decorated with the Kirti Chakra, the second highest peacetime gallantry medal of the country, while Hussain has been awarded the Shaurya Chakra, one below in precedence than the Kirti Chakra, for this operation. Another CRPF Constable Sable Dyaneshwar Shriram of the 53rd battalion of the force was awarded the Shaurya Chakra for killing two armed JeM terrorists after taking them on in Baramulla district of Kashmir Valley while he was on ‘naka’ (checkpost) duty on October 19 last year.
Five personnel of the ITBP have been decorated with Police Medal for Gallantry for exemplary valour and extraordinary courage in a Naxal encounter that took place on October 25, 2017 in the jungles of Kamkasur and Kopankarka in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh.
The force has been awarded a total of 19 medals in various service categories this time.