A Legend among The Bravest of the Brave
By Jaishree Laxmikant
Today is the birth anniversary of a legend; one of the few whose bust stands tall in his Battalion. This Battalion has to its credit many immensely brave men, some who have gone and some who are still there. This piece is about one such brave officer; Capt. Arun Singh Jasrotia Ashok Chakra, Sena Medal.
Capt. Arun Singh Jasrotia was born on 16th Aug’ 1968. His parents Lt. Col Prabhat Singh and Mrs. Satya Devi hailed from Sujanpur in Pathankot, Punjab. Capt. Happy, as Arun was called by his near and dear ones, always dreamt of donning the Uniform just like father and grandfather. He completed his school education from Kendriya Vidyalaya school no.1 and joined National Defence Academy. He belonged to NDA 73 course, Echo Squadron. After successful completion of military training in National Defence Academy and Indian Military Academy, he was commissioned into 8 Bihar Regiment on 17 December 1988.
Immediately after commissioning, when he came home from Dehradun, he gifted a saree to his mom and insisted that she drape it. His mom, too, insisted that he don the uniform so that they could click a picture together.
In 1992, he volunteered to join 9 PARA. Gen Prakash Katoch and Saikat Datta mention the following incident about Capt Arun Jasrotia in the book ‘India’s Special Forces : History and Future of Special Forces; Capt Alok Jha was the officer who conducted his probation. One of the exercises in the probation was a 60 kms speed march with 40 Kgs of weight. This march had to be completed within a specific time. As he completed about eight kms of the speed march, the strap of his back pack snapped off. Capt Jha suggested that the speed march could be postponed to some other date, by when the bag could be repaired. But Capt Jasrotia didn’t agree and insisted on completing the march. He completed the march, well within the stipulated time. And this too, while carrying his bulky rifle in one hand and his back pack in the other.
In his short tenure of six years, he had undergone several training courses like the Mountaineering course, High Altitude Warfare course, Deep Sea Diving course, and Commando course and was also part of the Joint Indo-US Underwater Training.
Capt. Arun was a part of Op Rakshak in the initial days of service, under 8 Mountain Div and 28 Inf Div. He was awarded with a Sena Medal while he was a part of Op Rakshak.
He was also offered a tenure of an ADC to the Chief of Army Staff Gen Shankar Roy Choudhary but he refused it and continued with his tenure in the Unit.
On 15th Sept 1995, Capt Arun’s unit received inputs from intelligence sources that there were about 20 terrorists present in a cave in the Lolab Valley. A search and destroy operation was launched under the leadership of Capt. Arun. He and his team moved out in the dark night, which was accompanied by rains too. They had to climb for around 10 hours to reach the height of 3000 meters. Capt. Arun Jasrotia was considered to be a lucky officer and his men believed that his rifle spoke more than he did. He was someone who was always calm and never got deterred. When he and his team closed in on the hideout, the militants began firing at them since they were well positioned. This did not deter Capt. Arun or his team. He lobbed a grenade for cover and moved forward and killed one terrorist. As he neared the hideout, he was attacked by another terrorist but Arun killed him with his commando knife and continued moving towards the cave. He had already been hit in the chest. But, he still entered the cave and kept lobbing grenades. thereby killing three more terrorists. His team attacked the rest of the terrorists and eliminated all of them. Capt. Jasrotia fought for his life for eleven days at the R & R Hospital, Delhi before succumbing to his injuries on 26th September 95. His smile did not falter even in those days of fighting for his life. He was awarded the highest peace time gallantry award ‘Ashok Chakra’ posthumously for his outstanding bravery and supreme sacrifice. He was also conferred with ‘Nishan-e-Khalsa’ by the Punjab Government in 1999.
On 16th Aug ‘2023, his school Kendriya Vidyalaya installed a bust in the memory of Capt Arun Jasrotia, in the presence of his siblings and his schoolmates
You have been an inspiration for many Jazzy Sir and you will continue to be so. Gone but not forgotten. Decades later, there are some in your Unit who fondly remember you as a very devoted, matured and focused person. You would speak less, but your actions have surely left an indelible mark on your comrades. Gone but not forgotten.
