Giris Gurung, KC

Biography

Havildar Giris Gurung was born on 25 February 1979 in Nagidhar village of the Kaski district of Nepal. Drawn to the proud martial traditions of the Gorkhas, he enlisted in the Indian Army on 27 July 1998 at the age of nineteen and was assigned to the 1 Gorkha Rifles, one of the oldest Gorkha regiments of the Indian Army. Through nearly two decades of service he served in several challenging postings, including a deployment to Jammu & Kashmir under Operation Rakshak, and earned a reputation as a courageous and dependable soldier. By May 2017, Havildar Gurung was serving with the 4th Battalion of the 1 Gorkha Rifles, deployed in the Naugam sector of Handwara in the Kupwara district of Jammu & Kashmir, an area frequently used by militants attempting to infiltrate across the Line of Control. On 20 May 2017, acting on intelligence about an infiltration bid, his unit launched a search-and-destroy operation against a group of heavily armed militants. During the prolonged firefight that followed, Havildar Gurung led from the front with exceptional courage, closing in on the militants and eliminating two of them before he sustained grievous injuries and succumbed. For his conspicuous gallantry, leadership and supreme sacrifice in the face of armed militants, Havildar Giris Gurung was posthumously awarded the Kirti Chakra, the nation's second-highest peacetime gallantry award.