Nagaland brave heart paratrooper Manchu of the 12th Battalion of the The Parachute Regiment (Special Forces) of the Indian Army was among the nine personnel who received the Shaurya Chakra from the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind during the Republic Day celebration in the national capital on Friday.
The Shaurya Chakra is the third highest peacetime military decoration after the Ashoka Chakra and the Kirti Chakra.
Based on an input about the movement of suspected NSCN(K) and ULFA(I) terrorists, the combined column of Major David Manlun and Captain (now Major) Nitesh Kumar, moved to establish a mobile vehicle check post in Mon district of Nagaland in early June last year.
At around 10pm of June 6 last year, the team intercepted an auto-rickshaw which sped past the check post. After being pursued, the terrorists in the vehicle started firing indiscriminately and also lobbed grenades. In the fight, three soldiers were critically injured. Undeterred, Paratrooper Manchu fired at the terrorists and eliminated them. He was grievously injured in both eyes and shoulder, but despite bleeding profusely, he pulled back two soldiers to safety.
Six people including Major David Manlun were killed in the encounter.
Paratrooper Manchu along with two other commandos of the elite 12 Para commando unit who were critically injured in the encounter were later evacuated to a military hospital in eastern Assam’s Jorhat district.
Paratrooper Manchu shares this year’s Shaurya Chakra, with eight others – Major Akhil Raj RV, Captain Rohit Shukla, Captain Abhinav Shukla, Captain Pradeep Shoury Arya, Havildar Mubarak Ali, Havildar Rabindra Thapa, Naik Narendra Singh and Lance Naik Badher Hussain – for their gallantry and valour in combating terrorists.