Deepak Kumar Padda, SC

Biography

Major Deepak Kumar Padda hailed from Hoshiarpur district in Punjab and was born on 30 January 1976. The son of an army veteran, Lt Col Paras Ram, he aspired to serve in the Armed Forces from his younger days, following in his father's footsteps. After completing his education, he joined the Army in the year 2000 and was commissioned into the 85 Armoured Regiment of the Armoured Corps, a unit well known for its formidable tanks and heavy weaponry. He served with his parent unit for four years, taking part in various challenging operations, before being sent on a cross-attachment to a Grenadiers battalion deployed in Jammu & Kashmir. By 2005, Major Padda was serving with the 14 Grenadiers battalion in the Kupwara district of Jammu & Kashmir, an area heavily affected by militancy. Besides manning forward posts, his unit regularly undertook counter-insurgency and anti-infiltration operations along the border. On 25 May 2005, acting on intelligence inputs, his battalion launched a cordon-and-search operation in Rangawar village of Kupwara. After a long search, the troops made contact with a group of militants who opened fire on being challenged. Major Padda and his men fought back with great determination. When the militants attacked and injured one of his soldiers, he charged at them without any regard for his own safety to draw their fire and protect his comrades. In the fierce exchange that followed he was seriously wounded, yet he continued to fight and managed to eliminate one militant. Evacuated first to a military hospital and later to Delhi for advanced care, he fought valiantly for several days before succumbing to his injuries on 4 June 2005. For his conspicuous gallantry and supreme sacrifice, Major Deepak Kumar Padda was awarded the Shaurya Chakra.