N.C. Behera receives his son’s medal. Picture by Amit Datta

In March 2002, Captain Anirban Bandyopadhyay, 24, was killed in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir, a bullet fired by a mujahideen piercing his heart while he was trying to save his comrades. In January 2004, his mother Shukla is away on a peace mission to Pakistan with a group of students from The Telegraph in Schools. On Thursday, his father, a retired lieutenant colonel, received the posthumous Sena Medal for gallantry.

“We are proud that our son died with his boots on, like a true soldier,” said Rabindranath Bandyopadhyay, after receiving the posthumous award for his son at the army investiture ceremony at Fort William. “But 50 years of war is enough. There has been too much sacrifice by both countries and this must stop,” he added, fighting back his tears.

Another father who made that sacrifice was Narayan Chandra Behera, father of Rifleman Braj Kishore Behera of 25 Assam Rifles. In April 2002, Braj Kishore was killed in an operation against militants in Manipur. “We do not regret sending him to the army,” said Narayan, in a dhoti and shirt, clasping the medal of honour he had just received from GOC-in-C, Eastern Command, Lt-Gen. J.S. Verma, tears trickling down his weather-beaten face. The man from a remote village in Bhagwanpur district of Orissa said he was all too willing to send any of his other five sons out to fight for the nation.

Others have lived to tell their tales of bravery. Captain Tarun Kalia of 8 Kumaon (electronics and chemical engineers) battalion recounted killing two terrorists in a 35-minute encounter at a village in Assam’s Dhubri district. “We surrounded a house and militants started firing at us. If we had not killed them, they would have killed us,” he said.

On Thursday, one braveheart received the Youth Seva medal, 44 won the Sena medal (gallantry), eight of them posthumous. Seven Seva medals (distinguished), a Bar to Vishisht Seva Medal, 10 Vishisht Seva medals and six unit citations were handed over.

Lt-Gen. J.S. Verma later said that for the posthumous awards, the army would try to disburse pension to the bereaved families as soon as possible. “We also plan to enlist the brother or son of any injured armyman after properly training them,” he said.

On Operation Flush Out, along the border with Bhutan, nearly 700 militants have been arrested, or have surrendered, since December 15, he added.