A BSF officer who was killed by cattle smugglers along the Indo-Bangla border in Tripura and troops who thwarted infiltration bids and unprovoked firing attempts from Pakistan have been decorated with police gallantry medals on the eve of the 71st Republic Day.
A total of nine personnel of the border guarding force, with six posthumous, have been awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG), a force spokesperson said.
Second-in-command rank officer Dipak Kumar Mondal was killed by cattle smugglers in October 2017, when he, along with his team, intercepted them in the dead of the night near an "unfenced" border area in the Sipahijala district of Tripura.
Mondal and his teammates were attacked with stones, bricks and sharp-edged weapons. He and the officer was also hit by a four-wheeler being used by the smugglers.
The officer was airlifted to Kolkata for better medical care but succumbed to the injuries four days later on October 20.
"In recognition of his act of raw courage, conspicuous gallant action and display of highest level of bravery, late Shri Dipak Kumar Mondal has been awarded the PMG," his citation said.
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Assistant Sub-Inspector Sat Narayan Yadav and Constable Vijay Kumar Pandey have been honoured posthumously along with ASI Vijay Karan Singh for effectively retaliating to unprovoked Pakistan firing in Jammu along the International Border (IB) on June 3, 2018.
Head Constable Santosh Kumar and Constable Chandrappa Lamani have been given the PMG for foiling an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir in February 2017. The troops also killed a Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorist in the gun battle.
Constable Tapan Mondal, who was killed during an unprovoked firing incident along the Jammu IB in November 2017, has been given the PMG for ensuring safety of his colleagues.
Constables Devendra Singh and Brijendra Bahadur Singh have also been awarded the gallantry medal (posthumously) for displaying bravery along the Pak border in September 2017.
The BSF is primarily tasked to guard Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh apart from being deployed to conduct anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.