Rajiv Kumar Joon, AC, SC

Biography

Major Rajiv Kumar Joon was born on 5 December 1969 in Gadikhari village of Rohtak district, Haryana, to Shri Dharma Singh and Srimati Shanti Devi. Having lost his father at the age of eleven, he grew up shouldering considerable family responsibility, developing early the qualities of sincerity, resolve and courage that would define his life. He completed his schooling at the Military School in Kunjpura, Karnal, where his inclination towards a military career took firm shape. He went on to join the National Defence Academy at Khadakvasla and was commissioned into the Grenadiers Regiment on 8 June 1991, joining 22 Grenadiers, where he was soon recognised by his seniors for his bravery and combat skills. In 1994, his battalion was deployed in Jammu & Kashmir for counter-insurgency operations. On 16 September 1994, acting on specific intelligence, Major Joon led a cordon and search operation in a village of Anantnag district. He detected two militants concealed in a house; when challenged, they opened indiscriminate fire, wounding a member of the search party. Directing his men to engage the militants, he pressed the assault as the two took cover in a basement. At great personal risk, Major Joon crawled to a loophole on the outer wall, lobbed in two grenades and fired through it, killing one hardcore militant. The second militant continued firing with renewed vigour. Undeterred, Major Joon approached the loophole and came face to face with him. Exploiting the darkness, the militant shot him grievously in the throat and chest. Despite profuse bleeding, Major Joon refused to withdraw and, in a final burst, sprayed the basement with fire and killed the second militant before succumbing to his wounds. For his raw courage, indomitable spirit and supreme sacrifice, he was awarded the Ashoka Chakra, the nation's highest peacetime gallantry award, posthumously.