Prithvi Singh Dagar, VrC

Biography

Captain Prithvi Singh Dagar hailed from Malikpur village in the Najafgarh tehsil of Delhi and was born on 1 June 1942 to Chaudhary Keval Singh Dagar and Dadka Devi. He completed his schooling at Ujwa and went on to study at the well-known Ramjas College, Delhi. From his younger days he nursed a strong desire to wear the Army uniform, and following that passion he was selected for military training. He passed out of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, on 2 February 1964 at the age of twenty-one and was commissioned into the 2 Grenadiers Battalion of the Grenadiers, an infantry regiment renowned for its gallant soldiers and string of battle honours. In September 1967, tensions flared at the Nathu La pass on the Sikkim–Tibet watershed, where Indian troops were fencing the border to Chinese objection. On 11 September 1967, as army engineers worked to complete a wire obstacle, the 2 Grenadiers and 18 Rajput were detailed as a protection party. Captain Dagar was placed in charge of a party ordered to strengthen the wire-laying effort opposite the South Shoulder. Soon after work began, the Chinese scuffled with his party and then opened fire from the front and both flanks. Captain Dagar was struck in the right hand by a rifle bullet. Despite his wound, and in the face of heavy medium machine gun fire, Captain Dagar picked up the rifle of a fallen comrade and killed two Chinese soldiers. When the enemy MMG continued to inflict severe casualties and could not be silenced, he saw no alternative but a direct assault. In a rare display of courage he leaped forward and charged the machine gun position, laying down his life at the age of twenty-five. For his exemplary courage, leadership and supreme sacrifice, Captain Prithvi Singh Dagar was awarded the Vir Chakra posthumously.