The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : A homecoming for Ashok Chakra winner

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Tuesday, Mar 02, 2010
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

A homecoming for Ashok Chakra winner

R Vimal Kumar

Tirupur: It was indeed a home coming for Ashok Chakra winner Major D. Sreeram Kumar to Sainik School, Amaravathinagar, his alma mater, on Monday.

Despite his hectic professional schedule, Major Kumar found time to make the first visit to the institution after receiving the coveted Ashok Chakra from President Pratibha Patil a month ago and interact with the students.

Major Kumar told The Hindu that the days he spent in the institution between 1992 and 1998 would be the ones he would cherish all through his life since the first seeds of how a perfectly disciplined day-to-day life were sown in him during that period.Though he became the first person from Tamil Nadu and the second living Army officer to be awarded Ashok Chakra, Major Kumar was modest enough to attribute it to the team effort of 39 Assam Rifles, which saw 12 militants been shot down and 23 captured alive during the anti-insurgency operation in Manipur in 2008.

For this operation, nicknamed ‘Operation Hifazat’, Major Kumar, who was then on deputation to Assam Rifles from his parent 90 Medium Artillery, was selected for the prestigious award.

The bullets spitted from Major Kumar’s gun itself killed five of the 12 militants in that operation.

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