V Kannalan Kennady, KC

Biography

V Kannalan Kennady hailed from Naikenpalayam village, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu. He served with the 25th Battalion of The Madras Regiment and was deployed for counter-infiltration operations along the Line of Control in the Shamsabari Range, Jammu & Kashmir. On 11 April 1993, during a counter-infiltration operation, Naik Kennady's patrol encountered a group of terrorists. In the ensuing firefight, he killed one terrorist and despite being wounded, picked up an AK-56 rifle from the fallen terrorist and kept firing at the remaining militants. His sustained fire enabled his unit to eliminate seven additional terrorists and recover a significant weapons cache. He sustained fatal injuries during the engagement. For his extraordinary courage and supreme sacrifice, Naik V Kannalan Kennady was posthumously awarded the Kirti Chakra on 26 January 1994.