Rank Captain Awards Shaurya Chakra Award Shaurya Chakra Unit Rajputana Rifles Allegiance India | Battles/wars Kashmir conflict Died Jammu and Kashmir Battles and wars Kashmir conflict Service/branch Indian Army | |
Sanjay Chauhan was an Indian Army officer, of the 16 Rajputana Rifles, who was killed by militants along with his three teammates on 28 October, 1994, in the Lachimpora village of Jammu and Kashmir. He was awarded the Shaurya Chakra, India's third highest military honour. At the time, the Kashmiri insurgency was at its peak, with Pakistan waging a proxy war in Kashmir against its neighbour.
The Operation
On the basis of actionable intelligence gathered by his network of agents in Kashmir, Captain Chauhan planned an assault on foreign militants hiding in Lachimpora. The operation, if successful, could lead to the elimination of foreign militant hierarchy in a sensitive area of Kashmir.
Disguised as foreign militants, Captain Chauhan and his team of three soldiers, armed with AK-47s, entered the village of Lachimpora. A platoon, led by a JCO, was to hide in a ridge nearby, observing the situation from their vantage point, and respond to any call for help. The militants, despite the soldiers' disguise, grew suspicious. Soon, the team was found out. They escaped the gathering of terrorists and took their place in a hut. The JCO, however, failed to respond to rheir calls for help even as 20 to 30 militants descended from the hills. The party of soldiers was captured alive and subsequently tortured to death. The horribly mutilated bodies of the soldiers, found in the middle of Handwara, revealed that the militants had tortured them by pulling out their fingernails, gouging their eyes out, chopping their hands off, and by maiming their private parts.
Captain Sanjay Chauhan was awarded the Shaurya Chakra, India's third highest military honour, for valour in the face of the enemy.