Sunil Kumar, SM

Biography

Havildar Sunil Kumar hailed from Taranagar village in the Bihta tehsil of Patna district, Bihar. He enlisted in the Army in 2004 at the age of eighteen and was inducted into the 16 Bihar Battalion of the Bihar Regiment, an infantry unit renowned for its valiant soldiers and many battle honours, and by 2020 had completed about sixteen years of service. During June 2020 the unit was deployed near the Line of Actual Control in Eastern Ladakh as part of Operation Snow Leopard, as tensions rose over the Galwan Valley along the route to Daulat Beg Oldie. On the night of 15 June 2020 the commanding officer of the 16 Bihar Battalion, Colonel Santosh Babu, led talks to defuse the standoff, but these turned into a brutal hand-to-hand clash as Chinese troops attacked with iron rods and clubs. In the fighting that raged for several hours along the freezing river, he and nineteen other soldiers laid down their lives for the nation. For his exceptional courage and supreme sacrifice, Havildar Sunil Kumar was awarded the Sena Medal on 26 January 2021.