Pratap Singh, MVC

Biography

Captain Pratap Singh was born on 17 January 1960 at Basai Darapur in New Delhi. Drawn to a life in uniform from an early age, he was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery on 27 August 1983 and rose to be an officer of fine professional grounding, known among his comrades for his composure and quiet determination in the most demanding of conditions. By the spring of 1988 he was serving on the Siachen Glacier, the highest and most unforgiving battlefield in the world, as an observation post officer with 75 Medium Regiment. The Sonam sector, lying in the shadow of the heavily contested Bana Post, demanded of every soldier a rare blend of endurance, technical skill and raw courage, and Captain Pratap Singh had earned the trust of his commanders in full measure. On 26 May 1988, he volunteered for an exceptionally hazardous mission to neutralise an enemy access route by severing the fixed ropes and dismantling a ladder system that had been rigged on a sheer ice wall below Bana Post. Moving across treacherous, crevassed ground at extreme altitude, he reached the objective and began the painstaking work of disabling the approach. While examining abandoned enemy ammunition at the site, a concealed booby trap detonated, inflicting grave wounds to his right arm and chest. Refusing to leave the task unfinished, he pressed on through the pain, cut the ropes and unfastened the ladder as planned, and only then succumbed to his injuries, ensuring that the enemy route stood denied. For his conspicuous gallantry, his cool-headed devotion to duty in the face of certain death and his supreme sacrifice in the highest traditions of the Indian Army, Captain Pratap Singh was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra on 26 January 1989.