Militant who turned soldier posthumously awarded Ashok Chakra

Lance Naik Nazir Ahmad Wani, a surrendered militant who became a soldier, will be posthumously awarded India’s highest peacetime gallantry award, the Ashok Chakra, on Republic Day for his courage during a fierce encounter in which six terrorists were killed in Kashmir last November.

Wani belonged to an army unit raised 15 years ago with surrendered militants as an experiment to rewrite the rules of counter-terror operations in Kashmir.

President Ram Nath Kovind will present the award to Wani’s wife, Mahajabeen Wani, at the 70th Republic Day parade, the army said on Thursday. Wani, who was 38 when he died, will be the first soldier from Kashmir to be awarded the Ashok Chakra. Thus far, 88 individuals have been awarded the Ashok Chakra; of these 68 have been awarded posthumously.

Exactly two months ago, on November 25, 2018, the army received intelligence on the presence of six heavily-armed terrorists at Hirapur village in south Kashmir’s Shopian district.

Wani and his squad were asked to block the terrorists’ most likely escape route, a standard drill during such operations.

The soldiers closed in on the target house and positioned themselves to engage the terrorists at close range.

“Sensing danger, the terrorists attempted breaching the inner cordon, firing indiscriminately and lobbing grenades. Undeterred by the situation, L/Nk Nazir held ground and eliminated one hard core terrorist [a district commander of LeT] in a fierce exchange at close range,” said a notification issued by the President’s secretariat on Wednesday.

Nazir’s second kill followed a few minutes later when he fearlessly stormed into the house, amid bullets and grenades flying around him.

First Published: Jan 24, 2019 23:15 IST