Sandeep Singh, SC

Biography

Lance Naik Sandeep Singh hailed from Kotla Khurd village in Majitha Tehsil of Amritsar district, Punjab, and was born to Shri Jagdev Singh and Smt Kulwinder Kaur. After completing his early education in his native region, he chose a life of service and was enrolled into the Sikh Regiment as a mechanical transport driver on 18 June 2007. Displaying exceptional dedication and professional competence in his early years, he volunteered for the Special Forces and, after clearing one of the Army's most rigorous selection processes, was inducted into 4th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (Special Forces) — the elite 4 Para (SF) — on 5 July 2008. Beginning as a mechanical transport driver in hostile terrain, he was inspired by the courage of his fellow commandos and volunteered for the perilous role of scout, forming the eyes and ears of his squad at the very front of operations. By 2018 he had taken part in numerous counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism operations with distinction. During 2018 his unit was deployed in the volatile Tangdhar sector of Kupwara district. On 22 September 2018, following an infiltration bid near the Eagle Post in the Gagadhri Nar area along the LoC, he served as leading scout of a nine-member Special Forces team led by Captain Gurjeet Saini, tasked with locating and neutralising heavily armed foreign terrorists at an altitude of around 12,500 feet. He tracked the terrorists' precise location and alerted his squad. When they came under intense fire, he closed in and neutralised one terrorist at close range. Grievously wounded by a grenade, he refused to withdraw, crawling forward and engaging the enemy in fierce hand-to-hand combat that created a decisive pause enabling his squad to counter-attack. Shot by a third terrorist, he was mortally wounded. Lance Naik Sandeep Singh was awarded the Shaurya Chakra, posthumously.