NSA Ajit Doval on Saturday recalled that a traditional annual event held in memory of gallant men of the country’s largest paramilitary force Central Reserve Police Force(CRPF) had left him so impressed in 1973 that he named his son Shaurya.
Doval said this to a packed house of men and officers from the CRPF and other central forces as he delivered his speech to mark the annual ‘Shaurya Divas’ (Valour Day) here.
The day is commemorated by the CRPF every year by awarding gallantry medals to its personnel and it draws its history from a 1965 event at the ‘Sardar Post’ in the Rann of Kutchh area when a motley squad of 150 men of the paramilitary repulsed a Pakistani brigade attack on this day and engaged them successfully all night without letting them succeed to overrun the post.
The retaliation by the CRPF men saw the numerically and armament superior Pakistan retreating the areas and leaving behind 34 bodies of their soldiers including two officers. Four Pakistani soldiers were taken hostage while six CRPF men made the supreme sacrifice and the post was saved.
“In 1973, when I was posted in the North East, I attended the ‘Shaurya Divas’ event held by CRPF there. That event and the story of courage recounted had left an indelible mark on me and I was so impressed by it that I named my son as ‘Shaurya’ who was born 10-15 days after that,” the National Security Adviser said.