President Pratibha Patil has cleared the names of slain former Maharashtra Anti-Terrorist Squad chief Hemant Karkare, sub-inspector Tukaram Gopal Omble and National Security Guard commando Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan, who laid down their lives during the Mumbai terror strikes, for Ashok Chakra. A senior Rashtrapati Bhavan official told rediff.com, "All that I can tell you is that she has cleared the file and it has been sent to home ministry."
President Murmu set aside the protocol of her high office to hug mothers and wives as they mourned their loss and also acknowledged a grateful nation's eternal debt to their kin.
'He fulfilled his farz to his country,' a grieving mother says of Major Mustafa Bohara who was awarded the Shaurya Chakra, the nation's third-highest medal for gallantry in peacetime. 'He fulfilled his farz to his country,' said his proud mother of her soldier son.
In spite of being wounded in battle, Lieutenant Colonel A B Tarapore fought for six days before meeting a hero's death on the battlefield in the 1965 war. A legend in the Indian Army, he is the highest ranking officer to be awarded the Param Vir Chakra.
Central Reserve Police Force Deputy Commandant and five-time gallantry medal winner P R Mishra has become the only person from paramilitary forces to have been decorated with a Shaurya Chakra this Independence day for displaying exemplary courage in anti-Naxal operations.
The bodies of Havildar Rohit Kumar, Havildar Thakur Bahadur Ale and Naik Gautam Rajbanshi were trapped deep within a crevasse and lay buried under thick layers of ice and large volumes of snow for the past nearly nine months.
Russia is reportedly angry that India allowed US officers on board the INS Chakra. But are French lobbyists trying to muddy India-Russia waters?
India's highest peacetime gallantry medal, the Ashok Chakra, would be awarded to three Army personnel who laid down their lives while fighting militants in Kashmir.
To share your Father's Day story (Father's Day will be celebrated on Sunday, June 16), just mail us at getahead@rediff.co.in (subject: Father's Day) along with your name, the place where you live, your father's name and picture and your message about him.
Col Vasanth V, Captain Harshan R and Naib Subedar Chuni will be awarded this year's 'Ashok Chakra' posthumously.
The exercise was conducted by the Indian Air Force to showcase full integration of air defence missile system into the force, they said.
Wani laid down his life during an anti-terror operation at Shopian in Kashmir in November last year.
The award was received by Corporal Nirala's wife Sushmanand and his mother Malti Devi at the majestic Rajpath.
President Droupadi Murmu on Tuesday conferred Distinguished Service Awards, including 52 Ati Vishisht Seva Medals, on 84 serving and retired personnel of the armed forces and the Indian Coast Guard.
Shameem Akthar, yoga acharya trained with the international Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center, shows you five poses that work on your heart centre.
Senior army and police officials were present at the meeting, but what caught our eye was the presence of Ravi Sinha, who heads the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency, and Tapan Deka, who head the Intelligence Bureau, India's internal intelligence agency, at the meeting.
Their names have been forwarded by the Defence Ministry for the top honour as a tribute to the deceased, sources said in New Delhi on Tuesday.
President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday approved 412 gallantry awards and other defence decorations to Armed Forces personnel and others on the eve of 74th Republic Day.
'The greatness of India can be experienced by meeting Indians on the frontiers of India.' 'Every citizen on the border is a soldier'
'Both Abdul Hamid and the enemy tank place each other in their sights and shoot. Both shells hit their targets. There is a loud blast, fire and smoke.' 'Hamid doesn't get time to jump off. A deafening blast follows and then there is complete silence.' 'Abdul Hamid is dead. He has destroyed a total of seven enemy tanks, many more than what an armoured formation could take on.'
Jha, a fearless officer of the country's largest paramilitary force, led a lethal anti-Naxal operation on July 3 last year in Jamui district of Bihar.
Major Somnath Sharma was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his bravery in the Kashmir operations on November 3, 1947.
A sub-inspector of the Andhra Pradesh's counter-Maoist force was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra, the highest peacetime gallantry award of the country, as India celebrated its 65th Republic Day on Sunday.
Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party President Vijender Gupta, who has expressed profound grief over the death of the 23-year-old gang rape victim, has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh requesting that the brave heart should be awarded the Ashoka Chakra, India's highest civilian award for bravery, on January 26.
Mumbai Police Inspector Vijay Salaskar and Assistant Sub-Inspector Tukaram Ombale, apart from National Security Guard commandos Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and Havildar Gajender Singh too would receive the medal posthumously for their acts of bravery during the November Mumbai attacks. Delhi Police inspector Mohan Chand Sharma, who died fighting terrorists in the Batla House operation in the capital in September last year, has also been named for the award.
A total of 151 Sena Medals, eight Yudh Seva Medals too have been announced on the occasion of Republic Day.
Let's explore five transformative yoga asanas designed to fortify your back, neck and shoulders, ensuring you stand tall and strong, just like a tree rooted firmly in the ground.
'As a child, I didn't even know that he was an IPS officer... It was much later when I came back to India'
Glimpses from the At Home reception hosted by President Droupadi Murmu at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Republic Day.
Captain Pradeep Shoury Arya is an Income-Tax officer whose mission against terrorists in J&K won him the Shaurya Chakra.
On the 25th anniversary of the battle that made his war cry 'Dil Maange More' part of national lore, we republish that feature to salute Captain Batra's ultimate sacrifice for the nation.
Lieutenant Commanders Dilna K and Roopa A will remain at sea for 8 months. They will rely on wind power, do the repairs on the boat themselves and navigate some the world's most treacherous waters.
The 36-year-old havildar displayed raw courage, unflinching grit during his encounter with the terrorists in which he was fatally injured.
'Captain Haneef-ud-din, pulling his sinewy body forward, crawled, rifle in hand, in the snow on 6 June 1999. He died on this craggy mountainside exactly two years after he had passed out of the IMA...'
Ladakh has put up a seven-feet high statue of two-time Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) awardee and hero of the battle of Turtuk, Colonel Chewang Rinchen, at his native Sumoor village in Leh, officials said on Monday.
'I told my commander that they were not militants, but full-fledged soldiers with machine guns.'
'On October 12-13, he started shivering from fear in his tent.' 'That was the time he wrote a letter to my mother to conduct Ganeshji's Atharvashirsha.' 'The moment he finished writing that letter, he told us, he felt serene calmness.'
