Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...

Navdeep Singh Bains, AC was a Ghatak Platoon Commander of 15

Maratha Light Infantry The Maratha Light Infantry is a light infantry regiment of the Indian Army. It traces its lineage to the Bombay Sepoys, raised in 1768, making it the most senior light infantry regiment in the Indian Army. Recruitment The class composition o ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, military service, service, or administrative corps, specialisation. In Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of l ...

in the

Indian Army The Indian Army (IA) (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the Land warfare, land-based branch and largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Commander-in-Chief, Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head ...

.President to Confer Ashoka Chakra on Lt. Navdeep Singh (Posthumous)
Press Information Bureau, 25-January 2012, pib.nic.in He led an operation to ambush 17 well-trained and armed terrorists who infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir state. He killed 4 of the terrorists and brought an injured team member to safety before succumbing to fatal injury from close range. He was posthumously conferred the highest peacetime gallantry award of India

Ashoka Chakra The Ashoka Chakra (Transl: Ashoka's wheel) is an Indian symbol which is a depiction of the dharmachakra (English: "wheel of dharma"). It is so-called because it appears on a number of edicts of Ashoka the Great, most prominent among which is ...

President of India The president of India (ISO 15919, ISO: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, and the commander-in-chief, supreme commander of the Indian Armed ...

on the 63rd

Republic Day Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics. List January 1 January in Slovak Republic The day of creation of Slovak republic. A national holiday since 1993. Officially calle ...

.Ashok Chakra to Lt Navdeep Singh posthumously
Jalandhar, 25 January 2012, tribuneindia.com

Early life and education

Born in

Gurdaspur Gurdaspur is a city in the Majha region of the Indian state of Punjab, between the rivers Beas and Ravi. It houses the administrative headquarters of Gurdaspur District and is in the geographical centre of the district, which shares a bord ...

, to a

Jat Sikh Jat Sikh or Jatt Sikh (Gurmukhi: ਜੱਟ ਸਿੱਖ) is an ethnoreligious group, a subgroup of the Jat people whose traditional religion is Sikhism, originating from the Indian subcontinent. They are one of the dominant communities in Pu ...

family Singh was a third-generation soldier to serve in the Indian Army. His grandfather was a junior commissioned officer while his father Joginder Singh served as Subedar-major in the Bengal Sappers for 30 years and retired as Honorary

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. He completed his schooling from Army Public School, Tibri and completed his graduation in B.Sc. in hotel management in 2006 from IHM-Gurdaspur and post-graduation in the Army Institute of Management, Kolkata in 2009, where he received his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

degree.

Military career

Singh shunned a corporate career and instead joined the

Officers Training Academy The Officers Training Academy (OTA) is a training establishment of the Indian Army that trains officers for the Short Service Commission (SSC). The 49-week course at the OTA prepares graduates for all branches of the Army, except for the Army Me ...

as a gentleman cadet. He was commissioned into the Army Ordnance Corps, on 19 March 2011. As is the custom for all the non-fighting arms of the Indian Army, officers must complete an attachment of two years with an infantry battalion in a war or counter-insurgency theatre. For the duration of these two years, the officer, for all practical purposes, belongs to the said infantry battalion. Lieutenant Singh was attached to the 15

in Jammu & Kashmir in his first posting as a

commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer (NCO), or a warrant officer. However, absent ...

.To all the mothers who lost their sons for India
Archana Masih, 12 April 2012, Gurdaspur, rediff.com

Ambush

On 20 August 2011, Singh planned and led the operation to kill or capture 17 armed terrorists in Gurez Sector of northern Kashmir. He set up an ambush for terrorists and ordered the team to not open the fire before he do. After waiting till terrorists were just meters away, he cornered the infiltrators before attack.Navdeep Singh to be decorated with Ashok Chakra posthumously
Special Correspondent, NEW DELHI, 25 January 2012, thehindu.co.inLt Navdeep Singh cremated with full honours
Gourav Sally, TNN, 23 August 2011, indiatimes.com
26 January 2012, IBNLive.com He had positioned himself in least cover point and his team behind boulders, before attacking. He shot dead three terrorists when he was wounded in the head from about five meters' distance while trying to pull an injured soldier to safety. He nevertheless killed the fourth terrorist. He managed to pull his comrade-in-arms to safety and kept firing till death.Tears as Lieutenant Navdeep Singh gets posthumous Ashok Chakra for supreme sacrifice
, 26-Jan-2012, New Delhi, Odishatoday.com The encounter lasted about 8 minutes in which 12 well-trained terrorists were killed. His body taken to 92 Base Hospital in Srinagar.

Ashok Chakra award citation

Honors

Singh's body was brought to his hometown

the next day wrapped in the Indian flag in a military convoy. Mourners included people of his hometown, personnel from civil and army officers and soldiers from his

who gave him a guard of honor and the final salute. A state cabinet minister representing the chief minister laid a wreath on his body. He was cremated with full state and army honors amid crowd showering flowers and chanting "Navdeep Singh amar rahe".Lt Navdeep Singh cremated with full honors
Gourav Sally, TNN, 23 August 2011, indiatimes.com He was awarded the

posthumously on the 63rd Republic Day by president of India

Pratibha Patil Pratibha Devisingh Patil (born 19 December 1934), also known as Pratibha Patil Shekhawat, is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the president of India from 2007 to 2012. She was the first woman to become the president of India. A m ...

In popular culture

* ''India's Most Fearless 2'' (2018), book by Shiv Aroor and Rahul Singh, features the true story of fourteen Indian Army’ extraordinary officers. Singh's story is told in the chapter 3, "Fire When You Can See Their Faces".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Navdeep 1985 births 2011 deaths Recipients of the Ashoka Chakra (military decoration) Indian Army officers People from Gurdaspur Ashoka Chakra Indian military personnel killed in action