Lieutenant Navdeep Singh was posted in Gurez sector of North Kashmir in those days. He was made the commander of ‘Ghatak’ platoon, which specializes in commando operations. He was especially responsible for preventing infiltration from Pakistan and destroying terrorist designs.
That date was on August 19, 2011, when Lieutenant Navdeep Singh got information about the infiltration of 17 dreaded terrorists from Gurez Sector. As soon as the information was received, Lieutenant Navdeep Singh with his platoon set out to eliminate the terrorists. Search operation was started in the area prone to infiltration. All those routes were marked from where the terrorists were more likely to pass. On all these routes, Lieutenant Navdeep deployed the soldiers of his platoon.
After some exercise, Lt Navdeep and his platoon were spotted by the terrorists. Lieutenant Navdeep took the front and warned the terrorists. The terrorists started heavy firing. To answer this audacity of the terrorists, Lieutenant Navdeep went ahead and took the three terrorists to their end.
Meanwhile, his eyes fell on the fourth terrorist who was firing on the soldiers of the platoon. He had just moved towards that fourth terrorist, when he got a serious head injury.
Leaving the concern of his injury, he clashed with the fourth terrorist and within a few moments killed him. Till now, Lieutenant Navdeep had alone killed four terrorists. The anger of the remaining terrorists had increased so much that they started firing indiscriminately on the soldiers.
After taking the four terrorists to their end, the eyes of Lieutenant Navdeep were now searching for the remaining terrorists. Meanwhile, his eyes fell on one of his companions who were injured by the bullets of the terrorists.
Irrespective of the bullets being fired from the terrorists, he moved towards his companion and, showing indomitable courage, took his injured companion to a safe place. By now Lt Navdeep was badly injured.
Despite this, he kept on firing bullets at the terrorists till they fell from the bottom. A total of 12 terrorists were killed in this operation. On 20 August 2011, Lieutenant Navdeep Singh made his supreme sacrifice for the country at the age of just 26 and he became a martyr.
Lieutenant Navdeep Singh was originally from Gurdaspur district of Punjab. He was born in a military family. He was the third generation of his family, who had joined the army to serve the country. Lieutenant Navdeep’s grandfather was a junior commissioned officer in the army. His father Subedar Major Joginder Singh had served in the Bengal Sappers for 30 years.
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He had retired from the army as an honorary captain. Since childhood, he was brought up with the feelings of patriotism and making supreme sacrifice for the country. This is the reason why he chose the army as his workplace, despite having a bachelor’s in hotel management from IHM-Gurdaspur and a master’s degree in management from the Army Institute of Management, Kolkata.
Lt Navdeep was inducted into the Army Ordnance Corps in 2010. The responsibility of this corps is to provide logistic support to the Indian Army during war and peace. However, it is a matter of fact that Lieutenant Navdeep Singh got his first posting in an infantry unit of 15 Maratha Light Infantry. This unit was deployed for counter insurgency operation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Lt. Navdeep Singh was posthumously awarded the country’s highest peacetime gallantry award, the ‘Ashok Chakra’, for his exceptional courage, indomitable spirit and supreme sacrifice, for the Gurez Sector Operation. The award was presented to him by former President Pratibha Patil on 26 January 2012.
