Colonel Ashutosh Sharma, Sena Medal (BAR), commanding officer of 21 RR laid down his life-fighting terrorists in Handwara Kashmir. Col Ashutosh was a brave officer who had taken part in many counter-insurgency operations and earned the gallantry award twice. It is surely a big loss for the nation, but as always here are some facts about Col Ashutosh that every defence aspirants must read to get some motivation.

1. As per his brother, Col Ashutosh cleared his SSB interview in 13th attempt which was his last SSB attempt. He cleared the written exam every time and he was very dedicated to joining the Indian Army.

2. He received the gallantry award as a CO when he shot a terrorist– who was rushing towards his men on a road with a grenade hidden in his clothes– at close range. Col Sharma is the first CO or a colonel rank officer in the last five years to have lost life in an encounter with a terrorist. Before this, the Army had lost two colonel-ranking officers in separate terror incidents in 2015.

3. He had told his colleagues that he would nab or gun down the Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Before the encounter, intelligence inputs indicated the presence of the same group of terrorists inside a house at Changimulla village, prompting Col Sharma to launch a cordon-and-search operation along with his team and Qazi.

4. Col Ashutosh wanted to join the Special Forces too. Col Sharma used to go out of the way for his jawans and solve their problems.

5. “I used to caution him many a times and he had fixed a standard reply ‘muje kuch nahi hoga, bhaiya’ (nothing will happen to me, brother)…,” said his brother.

Indeed, Colonel Ashutosh Sharma is a motivation for all the defence aspirants and many will be inspired by him to serve the motherland.