Pinku Kumar, SC

Biography

Pinku Kumar was born in 1983 in Luhari village, Barot tehsil, Bagpat district, Uttar Pradesh, to Shri Jabar Singh Dangi and Smt Kamlesh Devi. After completing his education in Bagpat, he enlisted in the Indian Army on September 13, 2001, at the age of 18, and was recruited into the 6 Jat battalion of The Jat Regiment. By 2021, Havildar Pinku Kumar had accumulated approximately 20 years of dedicated service, becoming a soldier known for his commendable devotion to duty. He was deputed to the 34 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion for counter-insurgency operations in Jammu & Kashmir. On March 27, 2021, during a cordon and search operation in the Wangam area of Shopian district, two terrorists emerged from a target house firing indiscriminately. Havildar Pinku Kumar engaged one terrorist with accurate fire, eliminating the threat. When a second militant took cover behind a retaining wall, he stealthily closed in on the hiding terrorist and engaged him in close combat. He sustained a fatal gunshot wound to the head but successfully neutralized the second terrorist before succumbing to his injuries. For his conspicuous gallantry and supreme sacrifice, he was posthumously awarded the Shaurya Chakra on January 26, 2022.