Captain Sajjan Singh was born in Churu district of Rajasthan, in a family of army men. His father had served in the Jat Regiment. His aspiration of joining the army got into sight when he went to Rashtriya Military School, Belgaum. The main motto of these schools are to ready the future officers, and the schools have done their work efficiently. The officer’s qualities got inculcated in him during his school times. And because of them he got selected for NDA in his very first attempt. There he graduated from NDA and completed his training at IMA in December 2001. And after completing the training successfully, he was commissioned into 10 Para Special Forces, the forces who wore maroon beret, and balidaan badge, 10 PARA is also known as ‘Desert Scorpions’, because of the special tactical training of the soldiers of the unit in the desert area.
Service No | IC-61381 | ||||
Last Rank | Captain | ||||
Unit | 10 Para(SF) | ||||
Arm/Regt | The Parachute Regiment | ||||
Operation | Baramulla Operation(J&K) | ||||
Award | Kirti Chakra | ||||
Date Of Martyrdom | July 8, 2004 |
BARAMULLA OPERATION
During 2004, 10 PARA was posted in J&K for counter insurgency operations. On the night of 7th July, they got an information of some terrorists hiding in the Bandipur tehsil of Baramulla district. They were searching for those terrorists from a month. Captain Malik was tasked to track the terrorists and nab them. He briefed his team, before moving to the spot and cordoned the area carefully after reaching there so that terrorists cannot get a chance to escape. In the early hours, they saw that the terrorists were about to leave the area. He led the assault team and gave the terrorists a surprise attack, then fire fight started from both sides and he led the attack from the front, motivating his team in between. Then he saw that terrorists had started running in the narrow lanes to escape, and he chased them with his small team, and killed two terrorists in person. In between these fights, he also got three bullet shots, which gave him serious injury. But he continued the operation, as one terrorist was remaining. He surrounded the third one with his team and kept the pressure increasing on the enemy. There were heavy risks on this as the team was surrounding the terrorists, so the enemy can’t open fire on any of the soldiers which would be fatal for them. And despite of his wounds, he kept on motivating his men, and charged the third one in close quarters, and also killed him. But Captain Malik also succumbed to the injuries, and gave the ultimate sacrifice. He was awarded Kirti Chakra, which is the second highest peacetime gallantry award, for his exemplary courage and bravery. He was a very brave officer, who despite of getting serious gun wounds, didn’t thought of his personal safety, but completed the operation first, because of importance of operation. And by his sacrifice, he motivated the spirit of youths to join the armed forces, and give their side for the safety of the motherland.
“We live by chance,
We love by choice,
We kill by profession”
Officers Training Academy, Chennai.