Subedar Sanjiv Kumar was born on 5 December 1977 at Dehra (Himachal Pradesh). After completing 12th, he joined the army and was enlisted in the Parachute Regiment on 30 August 1996. The Parachute Regiment has a known reputation for valour. During the course at The Parachute Regiment Training Centre, he excelled in sports and training. He had multiple tenures in J&K.
Pakistan keeps on sending small well trained armed personnel into J&K to carry out terror tasks, attempt to kill key personnel, damage installations and establish contact with local bodies. The security forces check such infiltration and neutralize those who have managed to sneak in. Sanjiv Kumar was part of many operations to neutralise terror groups. He had also served with the elite National Security Guard (NSG).
A movement had been noticed near the fence on 1 April 2020 through drone imagery. This was confirmed on the ground with footprints in the snow not far from the Line of Control. There was a brief exchange of fire with 8 Jat Regiment after which the terrorists fled abandoning some of their bags containing ammo. The area was quickly cordoned off. At dawn on 2 April troops from 41 and 57 Rashtriya Rifles joined the operation. Troops once again established contact with the terrorists at about 4.30npm. The terrorists returned heavy fire before slipping off from a ledge. The chase continued, with contact established twice more on April 3 and 4.
On 4 April, two squads of the 4 Para (Special Forces) with six men each were deployed for a forward staging to the nearest battalion headquarters, and from there to Rangdoori, Guguldara and Teen Behak areas of Jumgund. They needed to chopper it in as the battalion remains cut off by winter snow. The Dhruv helicopter dropped them off on a hill feature in waist deep snow. The SF troops used quadcopter drones at this point to try and pinpoint precise locations of the 5-6 terrorists.
Over the day, intermittent exchanges of fire continued. Tracking movements across two days, it became clear that the terrorists had been cornered into a part of Kupwara’s dense Zurhama forest lower down the hill feature. Final contact with the terrorists was established on Saturday evening.
Subedar Sanjiv along with Paratroopers Amit and Chhatrpal tried to close in with the terrorist location. The three men realised too late that they were on an ice cornice which is an overhanging mass of hardened snow at the edge of a mountain precipice. It broke under their weight and they fell into a frozen mountain stream, right into where the terrorists were hiding.
A close quarter fight followed. Paratrooper Amit sustained 15 bullet injuries while Subedar Sanjiv and Paratrooper Chhatarpal also took heavy fire. They managed to kill two of the 5 terrorists before succumbing to their injuries. The three other men, Havaldar Davender and Paratrooper Balkishan rushed downward to extract their three comrades, charging into the exchange, quickly eliminating two more terrorists. The fifth terrorist was killed by troops from 8 Jat Regiment. Only one man from the Special Forces squad survived, with injuries.
An officer said: “They fell right where the terrorists hid which led to exchanges at point blank range. Give it to the training standards of the Special Forces (SF) guys that in spite of the fall, all five terrorists were killed.”
Two soldiers succumbed to their injuries a couple of days later after being airlifted to Srinagar’s Army hospital. The remains of the other 3 commandos and the terrorists were found within two meters of each other. The 4 Para (Special Forces) is the Army unit that undertook the 2016 surgical strikes in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in which 38 terrorists were killed.
Subedar Sanjiv Kumar sacrificed his own life to save his fellow soldiers in the highest traditions of the Indian Army and was awarded Kirti Chakra (KC).