Mukut Bihari Meena

Biography

Paratrooper Mukut Bihari Meena was born on 25 October 1993 in Ladania village of Jhalawar district in Rajasthan. He joined the Indian Army in 2011 at the age of 18 and was assigned to the 3 Para Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, an infantry regiment renowned for its brave soldiers and daring operations. After serving with his unit for some years, he was deputed to the 8 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion, deployed for counter-insurgency operations in the Kashmir Valley. In 2018 his unit was operating in Kupwara district of Jammu & Kashmir, an area close to the Line of Control and surrounded by dense forest, making it prone to cross-border infiltration. On 11 July 2018, acting on intelligence about the presence of infiltrating militants, the troops launched a large-scale cordon-and-search operation, in which Paratrooper Meena took part. His team soon established contact with the militants in the Kandi forest area, triggering a fierce firefight that lasted several hours. As the soldiers tightened the cordon to block the escape routes, Paratrooper Meena was hit by a bullet. Despite being given first aid and evacuated to a military hospital, he later succumbed to his injuries, laying down his life for the nation at the age of 24.