Two young elite para commandos of the Indian Army on Sunday sacrificed their lives leading from the front before attempting to neutralise heavily armed terrorists holed up inside the Entrepreneurship Development Institute in Pampore area of Pulwama district.
Passionate about their duty, both these bravehearts on ground zero displayed indomitable spirit before attaining martyrdom. Both the officers were children of school teachers and were destined to join the Indian Army.
According to Army officials in Srinagar, Captain Kumar had recently taken part in two successful operations earlier in which three terrorists were killed — including the operation on February 15 in Pulwama in which one terrorist and two civilians were killed.
Capt Kumar was born on January 15, 1993, observed as the Army Day. He graduated from the 123 course of the National Defence Academy and was commissioned into the Army on December 14, 2013. Captain Tushar Mahajan too is son of a reputed Physics teacher Dev Raj Gupta. He joined the Army against the wishes of his parents. He too is an alumni of Army Public School and later joined NDA before joining the elite 9 Para commandos. His schoolmates remember him as some one who was passionate about the Indian army and had nurtured only one dream of joining the Indian Army.