Madan Lal Choudhary

Biography

Honorary Lieutenant Madan Lal Choudhary was born on 10 September 1968 in Bakrak village of Kathua district in Jammu & Kashmir. He joined the Army on 30 December 1988 at the age of twenty and was recruited into the 1st Battalion of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry Regiment, a unit renowned for its fearless soldiers and numerous battle honours. Over nearly three decades of service he operated in some of the most demanding theatres in the country, serving in the Nowshera sector and Poonch, on the Siachen glacier, as a field-craft instructor at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun, and with IMTRAT in Bhutan, before being posted to the Sunjuwan military station near Jammu. In the early hours of 10 February 2018, a group of heavily armed terrorists penetrated the Sunjuwan camp of the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, sneaking in from the rear of the base after a brief exchange of fire with the sentry. Armed with AK-47 rifles and grenades, they barged into the family accommodation of the Junior Commissioned Officers, determined to inflict maximum casualties on sleeping soldiers and their families. Hearing gunshots outside his quarters, Honorary Lieutenant Choudhary rushed to the door and, in a rare display of courage, confronted the assailants with his bare hands. He took multiple bullets on his chest and arms, yet kept the terrorists engaged and alerted the more than one hundred surrounding family quarters. His timely and gallant response saved the lives of trapped women, children and unarmed men and prevented large-scale collateral damage. Shot from close range, he was martyred in the act, having shielded his family and neighbours with his own life.