Rifleman Sanjay Kumar of 13 JAK Rifles is one of the four recipients of the Param Vir Chakra for the Kargil war of 1999, the others being Captain Vikram Batra, 13 JAK Rifles, Lieutenant Manoj Kumar Pandey, 1/11 Gorkha Rifles and Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav, 18 Grenadiers, each being responsible for incredible valour and for facilitating the recapture of key points in the Kargil sector. Though his uncle was in the army and he grew up hearing stories about his being a part of the 1965 war, he had never thought that he would actually fight a war one day and also end up with the country’s highest military award. The character played by Suneil Shetty in the movie LOC Kargil about was modeled on Rifleman Sanjay Kumar.
Rifleman Sanjay Kumar and Point 4875 in the Mushkoh Valley
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He was an unlikely war hero; having been a taxi driver before joining the army and having succeeded in joining after his application being rejected three times. However, we can never predict what inspires heroic courage in a person and when the most ordinary among us rise up and do the extraordinary. So it was the rifleman Sanjay Kumar who’s company, 13 th Battalion of the J&K Rifles was tasked with the job of clearing the enemy from Point 4875 in the Mushkoh Valley.
He volunteered to lead his team of scouts; the attacking column headed for the Flat Top area of the peak. Their attempts on the 4th of July 1999 were foiled because of very heavy enemy fire. His commander asked for support fire and in the time that this bought them, the soldiers moved forward. In an account of the incident, the rifleman had spoken of how they had to crawl to avoid detection as they approached the enemy.
Though he took two bullets to the chest and another to the arm, he charged on. He and his fellow soldiers finally managed to neutralize all the enemy soldiers and successfully recaptured the peak.
“He stalled enemy guns with bare hands”
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Rifleman Sanjay Kumar ploughed on facing a rain of bullets and engaged in hand to hand combat to neutralize the enemy and regain the post that his company had been tasked with retrieving. He received the PVC when he was just 23; today he is 40 and his name is taken along with the most heroic of men.
Author – Reena Daruwalla
This article is a part of a series on the brave hearts of the Kargil War – these are heroes India has either forgotten about or has never heard of. This series is our tribute to our country’s men and women in uniform ahead of Kargil Divas (26 July).
