Bana Singh

Who is Bana Singh?

Naib Subedar Bana Singh, PVC was born on 3 January 1949 into a Sikh family, at Kadyal in Jammu and Kashmir. He enrolled in the Indian Army on 6 January 1969 into the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry. He was trained at the High Altitude Warfare School in Gulmarg and also at another school at Sonamarg. He was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the highest wartime gallantry medal in India.

The Pakistani post was at a height of 6500 metres, the highest peak in the Siachen Glacier area.From this feature the Pakistanis could snipe at Indian army positions since the height gave a clear view of the entire saltoro range and siachen glacier. The enemy post was virtually an impregnable glacier fortress with ice walls, 457 metres high, on either side. Naib Subedar Bana Singh led his men through an extremely difficult and hazardous route. He and his men crawled and closed in on the adversary. Lobbing hand grenades, charging with a bayonet and moving from trench to trench, he cleared the post.

Final Assault

A total of 162 people participated to the final operation. Two officers, 3 JCO and 157 jawans were selected. The operation was conducted in three phases on June 23, June 25 and June 26, 1987. A first platoon was sent under Major Varinder Singh on 23 June but unfortunately they had to come back. 22 soldiers were killed. The second platoon led by Subedar Harnam Singh with 40 jawans made an attempt on June 25. At that time, there was no problem with the rope, but due to some communication gap with us, the mission had to be aborted. The next day, on 26, Bana Singh and his team were told that they will try another attack and capture the Post from the enemy today itself. A message was passed from the Major General who was the Task Force Commander and they got the green light. The assault was in daylight and there was a heavy snowfall.There was a single bunker on the top.At the end, a total of six Pakistanis were killed. Their bodies were brought back and were later handed over to the Pakistanis authorities during a flag meeting in Kargil. The entire operation was completed by 5 pm.