Lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

Navdeep Singh, AC was a Ghatak Platoon Commander of 15

Maratha Light Infantry The Maratha Light Infantry is a light infantry regiment of the Indian Army. It traces its lineage to the Bombay Sepoys, raised in 1768, making it the most senior light infantry regiment in the Indian Army. The class composition of the regiment ...

regiment A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation. In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...

in the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

.President to Confer Ashoka Chakra on Lt. Navdeep Singh (Posthumous)
Press Information Bureau, 25-January 2012, pib.nic.in He led an operation to ambush 17 well-trained and armed terrorists who infiltrated into

Jammu and Kashmir Jammu and Kashmir may refer to: * Kashmir, the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent * Jammu and Kashmir (union territory), a region administered by India as a union territory * Jammu and Kashmir (state), a region administered ...

state. He killed 4 of the terrorists and brought an injured team member to safety before succumbing to fatal injury from close range. He was posthumously conferred the highest peacetime gallantry award of India

Ashoka Chakra Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, ...

President of India The president of India ( IAST: ) is the head of state of the Republic of India. The president is the nominal head of the executive, the first citizen of the country, as well as the commander-in-chief of the Indian Armed Forces. Droupadi Murmu ...

on the 63rd

Republic Day Republic Day is the name of a holiday in several countries to commemorate the day when they became republics. List January 1 January in Slovak Republic The day of creation of Slovak republic. A national holiday since 1993. Officially cal ...

.Ashok Chakra to Lt Navdeep Singh posthumously
Jalandhar, 25 January 2012, tribuneindia.com

Early life and education

Born in

Gurdaspur Gurdaspur is a city in the India, Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab, between the rivers Beas River, Beas and Ravi River, Ravi. It houses the administrative headquarters of Gurdaspur District and is in the geographical centre of the distr ...

, Singh was a third-generation soldier to serve in the Indian Army. His grandfather was a

junior commissioned officer Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) is a term used for a group of military ranks which is higher than havildar (non commissioned officer) and lower than lieutenant (commissioned officer). The term is only used by Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. Sen ...

while his father Joginder Singh served as

Subedar-major Subedar Major is the senior-most rank of junior commissioned officer in the Indian and Pakistani Armies, formerly known as the Viceroy's commissioned officer in the British Indian Army. History During the British Raj, Subedar-Major was the hi ...

in the

Bengal Sappers The Bengal Engineer Group (BEG) (informally the Bengal Sappers or Bengal Engineers) is a military engineering regiment in the Indian Army Corps of Engineers, Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army. The unit was originally part of the Bengal Army ...

for 30 years and retired as Honorary

Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

. He completed his schooling from Army Public School, Tibri and completed his graduation in

B.Sc. A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

hotel management ''Hotel Management'' magazine is a trade publication produced by Questex, LLC. History and profile The magazine ''Hotel Management'' was established in New York in 1922 by Ahrens Publishers. It absorbed or merged with various other hotel managem ...

in 2006 from IHM-Gurdaspur and

post-graduation Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and struc ...

in the

Army Institute of Management, Kolkata The Army Institute of Management, formerly the National Institute of Management Calcutta (NIMC), is a graduate business school located in Kolkata, India. It was established on 28 July 1997 by the Indian Army under the aegis of Army Welfare Ed ...

in 2009, where he received his

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree.

Military career

Singh shunned a corporate career and instead joined the

Officers Training Academy The Officers Training Academy (OTA) is a training establishment of the Indian Army that trains officers for the Short Service Commission (SSC). The 49-week course at the OTA prepares graduates for all branches of the Army, except for the Army Me ...

as a gentleman cadet. He was commissioned into the Army Ordnance Corps, on 19 March 2011. As is the custom for all the non-fighting arms of the Indian Army, officers must complete an attachment of two years with an infantry battalion in a war or counter-insurgency theatre. For the duration of these two years, the officer, for all practical purposes, belongs to the said infantry battalion. Lieutenant Singh was attached to the 15

in Jammu & Kashmir in his first posting as a

commissioned officer An officer is a person who holds a position of authority as a member of an armed force or uniformed service. Broadly speaking, "officer" means a commissioned officer, a non-commissioned officer, or a warrant officer. However, absent context ...

.To all the mothers who lost their sons for India
Archana Masih, 12 April 2012, Gurdaspur, rediff.com

Ambush

On 20 August 2011, Singh planned and led the operation to kill or capture 17 armed terrorists in Gurez Sector of northern Kashmir. He set up an ambush for terrorists and ordered the team to not open the fire before he do. After waiting till terrorists were just meters away, he cornered the infiltrators before attack.Navdeep Singh to be decorated with Ashok Chakra posthumously
Special Correspondent, NEW DELHI, 25 January 2012, thehindu.co.inLt Navdeep Singh cremated with full honours
Gourav Sally, TNN, 23 August 2011, indiatimes.com
26 January 2012, IBNLive.com He had positioned himself in least cover point and his team behind boulders, before attacking. He shot dead three terrorists when he was wounded in the head from about five meters' distance while trying to pull an injured soldier to safety. He nevertheless killed the fourth terrorist. He managed to pull his comrade-in-arms to safety and kept firing till death.Tears as Lieutenant Navdeep Singh gets posthumous Ashok Chakra for supreme sacrifice
, 26-Jan-2012, New Delhi, Odishatoday.com The encounter lasted about 8 minutes in which 12 well-trained terrorists were killed. His body taken to a hospital in Srinagar.

Ashok Chakra award citation

Honors

Singh's body was brought to his hometown

the next day wrapped in the

Indian flag The national flag of India, Colloquialism, colloquially called the tricolour, is a horizontal rectangular tricolour flag of Saffron (color)#India saffron, India saffron, white and Variations of green#India green, India green; with the ', a 24 ...

in a military convoy. Mourners included people of his hometown, personnel from civil and army officers and soldiers from his

who gave him a guard of honor and the final salute. A state cabinet minister representing the chief minister laid a wreath on his body. He was cremated with full state and army honors amid crowd showering flowers and chanting "Navdeep Singh amar rahe".Lt Navdeep Singh cremated with full honors
Gourav Sally, TNN, 23 August 2011, indiatimes.com He was awarded the

posthumously on the 63rd Republic Day by president of India

Pratibha Patil Prathibha DeviSingh Patil (born 19 December 1934) is an Indian politician and lawyer who served as the 12th president of India spanning from 2007 to 2012. She is the first woman to become the president of India. A member of the Indian National ...

In popular culture

* ''India's Most Fearless 2'' (2018), book by

Shiv Aroor Shiv Aroor is an Indian journalist and author. He is an editor and anchor at India Today (TV channel). He is also a defence correspondent, having done conflict reporting from defence zones such as Kashmir, Sri Lanka and Libya. He also runs a de ...

and Rahul Singh, features the true story of fourteen Indian Army’ extraordinary officers. Singh's story is told in the chapter 3, "Fire When You Can See Their Faces".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Navdeep 1985 births 2011 deaths Recipients of the Ashoka Chakra (military decoration) Indian Army officers People from Gurdaspur Ashoka Chakra