PVC

• The Param Veer Chakra (PVC) is India’s highest military decoration, awarded for displaying distinguished acts of valour during wartime.
• Only 21 soldiers have received this award to

EARLY LIFE

• Yogendra Singh Yadav was born on 10 May 1980 in Aurangabad village of Sikandrabad Bulandshahr District, Uttar Pradesh.
• His father Karan Singh Yadav had served in the Kumaon Regiment, participating in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pakistan wars. Yadav joined Indian Army at a very young age of 16 years and 5 months

PARAMVIR

• To launch an offensive and repel the Pakistani intruders from Tiger Hill, three battalions of the Indian Army, namely 18 Grenadiers, 2 Naga, and 8 Sikh, were chosen to assault the peak with support from the Regiment of Artillery.
• Yadav, enlisted with 18 Grenadiers, was part of the commando platoon ‘Ghatak’, tasked to capture three strategic bunkers on Tiger Hill in the early morning hours of 4 July 1999.

PARAMVIR

• 18 Grenadiers further sub-divided themselves into Alpha, Charlie, and Ghatak companies when they carried out the assault on 3 July 1999 to attack from the rear.
• Group of seven to climb Tiger hill on July 4 (1999). It was a 90 degree climb.The bunkers were situated at the top of a vertical, snow-covered, 1000-foot-high cliff face. Yadav, volunteering to lead the assault

PARAMVIR

• Halfway up, an enemy bunker opened up machine gun and rocket fire, killing the platoon commander and two others. In spite of having been hit by multiple bullets in his groin and shoulder, Yadav climbed the remaining 60 feet and reached the top.
• Fighting without enough arms and ammunition, 6 soldiers died except for Yadav.
• Yadav took 17 bullets, but none was able to mar his undying commitment to the nation. Severely wounded, lying on the ground, Yadav pretended to be dead while listening to the conversation of the Pakistani soldiers.

PARAMVIR

• He heard that the Pakistani army was planning to attack the medium machine gun post of India, located 500 metre downhill.
• Yadav was immediately alerted. Despite bleeding profusely, he wanted to keep himself alive just so he could give a tip-off to his platoon.
• In the meanwhile, two Pakistani soldiers came and began shooting the already dead soldiers again to make sure that everyone was dead. One bullet hit Yadav in the chest and he thought that he had lost his last chance to live.

 PARAMVIR

• Very quietly, Yadav took out a hand grenade and threw it at the Pakistani soldier who was just a few feet away from him. The grenade landed inside the hood of his jacket and before he could figure out what had happened, the explosion blew him off.
• Soon, there was a situation of confusion and panic among the Pakistani soldiers. Assuming that the Indian army reinforcement had arrived, they fled.

PARAMVIR

• Soon after, he crawled along a drain and eventually landed into a pit.There, he spotted some Indian army soldiers who took him out of the pit and to the commanding officer.
• Yadav narrated everything that he saw an heard to the Commanding officer, Colnel Kushal Chand Thakur, the man who had devised the plan to capture tiger hill.

PARAMVIR

• He gained conscious 3 days later at a hospital in Srinagar. By that time, the Indian Army had successfully captured Tiger Hill with zero casualties.Yadav took 17 bullets, but none was able to mar his undying commitment to the nation.
• In August 1999, Nayab Subedar Yogendra Singh Yadav was awarded Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest military decoration, awarded for displaying exemplary courage during wartime. On 26 January 2006, Yadav received the award from the then President K. R. Narayanan, becoming the youngest recipient of this honour.