Shyamal Das

Biography

Rifleman Shyamal Das hailed from Khargram village in the Murshidabad district of West Bengal. The son of Shri Dhirendra Das and Smt Madhavi Das, he was drawn to a life in uniform from his younger days and worked steadily towards that goal. In 2010 he realised his ambition by joining the Assam Rifles, the oldest paramilitary force of India, headquartered at Shillong. He was recruited into the 46 Assam Rifles battalion. By 2021, Rifleman Shyamal Das had put in about eleven years of service and had matured into a committed and dependable soldier. During that year his battalion was engaged in guarding the Indo-Myanmar border and in conducting counter-insurgency operations across the North East. In November 2021 the unit was deployed in Manipur, where militant activity along the 1,643-km unfenced border had increased sharply, prompting coordinated operations by the Army and paramilitary forces. On 13 November 2021, Rifleman Shyamal Das was part of a quick reaction team moving in a four-vehicle convoy. Along with his Commanding Officer, Colonel Viplav Tripathi, he was returning to the battalion headquarters at Khuga after visiting the unit's forward operating base in the Behiang area near the India-Myanmar border. As the convoy reached Sehkan village in Churachandpur district, militants of the PLA and MNPF launched a pre-planned ambush at around 1030 hours, first detonating an IED and then opening indiscriminate fire from vantage points in the surrounding forest. The attack was sudden and devastating, allowing the soldiers no time to respond. Colonel Viplav Tripathi, Rifleman Shyamal Das and three comrades — Rifleman Khatnei Konyak, Rifleman RP Meena and Rifleman Suman Swargiari — laid down their lives in this attack. Rifleman Shyamal Das was a brave and motivated soldier who made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty.