Botta Satyam

Biography

Lance Naik Botta Satyam was born in Andhra Pradesh. He joined the Indian Army and was assigned to the 11 Field Regiment. In 2015 he was posted to the 6 Rashtriya Rifles, which was deployed in the Kupwara region of Jammu & Kashmir for counter-terrorism operations and was regularly engaged in actions against militants. On 4 October 2015, security forces received intelligence about the presence of militants in the dense Hafruda forests of Handwara, about 85 km north-west of Srinagar. A joint operation was launched by the Army and the Jammu & Kashmir Police to apprehend them. A combined team of the 6 Rashtriya Rifles and the police cordoned off the suspected area and spotted the militants, who exploited the thick jungle to evade the troops and scattered into the vast forest. With their escape routes blocked, the soldiers continued the search operation. The hiding militants, heavily armed with automatic weapons and using the cover of darkness and dense foliage, opened fire on the troops from vantage positions, triggering a fierce gunfight. During the exchange of fire, Lance Naik Botta Satyam, along with Naik Gurdev Singh, was grievously wounded and attained martyrdom.