Damar Bahadur Pun, SM

Biography

Havildar Damar Bahadur Pun hailed from the Gulmi district of Nepal. Following the proud Gorkha tradition of service in the Indian Army, he enlisted at the age of nineteen and was assigned to the 1 Gorkha Rifles. Over more than two decades of distinguished service he served in numerous demanding operational areas and was known as a steady, disciplined and reliable soldier. By May 2017, Havildar Pun 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. On 20 May 2017, his unit launched an operation against a group of heavily armed militants attempting to infiltrate across the Line of Control. In the fierce thirty-six-hour firefight that followed, Havildar Pun engaged the militants with raw courage alongside his comrades. The operation resulted in four militants being eliminated, but in the course of the action he sustained grievous injuries and laid down his life. For his gallantry, devotion to duty and supreme sacrifice in the face of the enemy, Havildar Damar Bahadur Pun was posthumously awarded the Sena Medal.