Lance Naik Mohan Nath Goswami of the Special Forces, who was killed while taking part in back-to-back operations in Jammu and Kashmir that led to the killing of 10 terrorists in 11 days, was posthumously awarded the Ashok Chakra, the country’s highest peacetime gallantry award, by President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday.
Bhavna Goswami, widow of Goswami, received the award on the occasion of Republic Day.
Goswami was killed in the Hafruda forests in Kupwara district in a fierce gun battle, but not before he killed two terrorists and helped in killing another two.
Army sources said that Goswami had been actively involved in three operations in 11 days. Three Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists were killed in Khurmur, Handwara, on August 23. He volunteered for a second back-to-back operation in which three more Lashkar terrorists were killed and another Sajjad Ahmad, alias Abu Ubed Ullah, was captured alive in Rafiabad on August 26 and 27. Goswami again volunteered for an ongoing operation launched in the Hafruda forests. This was his last operation but not before he killed two terrorists.
He was awarded the Ashok Chakra for exhibiting “most conspicuous gallantry in personally eliminating two terrorists and assisting in evacuation of his wounded colleagues”.
