The brave personality, who is known to kill four terrorists who were trying to trespass on India’s border. This personality is none other than Havildar Hangpan Dada. Havildar Hangpan Dada was a soldier in India’s bravest regiment, the Assam Regiment. At the time of his martyrdom, Dada was posted in 35 Rashtriya Rifles.
He was born on 2nd October 1979 in Borduria village, Tirap district, Arunachal Pradesh, India. He was the youngest among the 3 brothers. He was married on October 28, 2005, and he had 2 daughters. Hangpan was known for his bravery since his childhood. He has many tales of his bravery but one that made him known all over the surroundings was when he and his friend were playing near the river and a sudden wave hit the shore, almost drowning his friend, Hangpan without having second thoughts jumped into the river and saved his friend. His bravery was marvelous. He got known for his dedication to saving people at any cost even if it came to put his life in danger.
Hangpan was so dedicated to joining the Indian Army as it was his dream. Therefore, to fulfill his dream, he got himself enrolled in it. In the year 1997, he joined the Assam Regiment as a soldier. Later on 28th October in the same year, he joined the 3rd Battalion of Parachute Regiment. He served there till 2005. After that, on 24th January 2005, he was transferred to Assam Regimental Centre. From here he was sent to join the 4th Battalion of Assam Regiment in the year 2008. Here also his tales of bravery prevailed. He became an arms trainer and managed to reach the original Battalion of Assam.
Hangpan later requested a transfer to a Rashtriya Rifle Battalion on operations in Kupwara district, Jammu and Kashmir. In May 2016, when Dada was on guard with his fellow soldiers on the border, he received input from the Intelligence stating that there were some terrorists trying to trespass in the Naugam of Kashmir.
This information was considered to be a serious matter and a team of 8 soldiers was made to kill the terrorists. Dada was appointed as the leader of this team. Without delaying any further, Dada set off to deal with the goons fully prepared. The terrorists were at a height of 13,000 feet, which made the task even more difficult, but Dada knew mountain climbing and maybe that is the reason apart from his bravery, he was chosen for this mission. Dada maintained the trust of his fellow soldiers and reached the heighted mountain as soon as he could. The terrorists were only at a distance from the team, but without making any hasty decisions, Dada firstly sealed all the escape routes of the enemy. The enemy felt their presence and that is why they started firing blind fire from behind the huge rocks. Since they were hidden behind the rocks, it was very difficult to guess the strength of the enemies. In a situation like this, Dada worked his senses and devised a strategy to strike the enemy. According to the strategy, Dada had to take the lead and go ahead and the rest had to cover him. In the barrage of enemy bullets, he succeeded in getting as close as possible to the enemies. This was to do a close encounter.
The encounter kept on and as the soldiers had expected, Dada had already killed 3 terrorists and also succeeded in seriously injuring the fourth one. While this close encounter was going on with the 4th terrorist, Dada had many bullets that struck him. He was wounded seriously. While Dada managed to kill the fourth terrorist with the help of the soldiers, his wounds started messing up the situation for him. The encounter had lasted for approximately 24 hours. He attained immortality on 27th May 2016 due to his injuries. He sacrificed his life fighting to protect the nation without any regrets.
He was accorded the highest gallantry award during peacetime operations, the Ashok Chakra Award, for his courage and bravery, on the eve of Republic Day. Assam Regimental Centre office named itself after Dada. Nowadays, in many cities of Arunachal Pradesh, football tournaments are held in his honor. For his service, we will always be indebted to him.
Amazing story, nicely written blog