For the first time, the Government of India has officially published the names of six members of a military unit who died in Operation Sindoor, India’s response to the terror attack in Pahalgam last May. Their names will now forever be etched in the National War Memorial in New Delhi.
The six are five soldiers from the Indian Army and one from the Indian Air Force. They have been listed as Subedar Major Pawan Kumar, Rifleman Sunil Kumar, Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar, Agniveer Murali Naik, Havildar Sunil Kumar Singh and Indian Air Force Sergeant Surendra Kumar.
They were announced with the list of all soldiers who made the supreme sacrifices at various military operations in 2025. They will be inducted into the ‘Tyag Chakra’ (Circle of Sacrifice) of National War Memorial, where names, ranks and units of all armed forces who became martyrs after independence are inscribed on the granite walls of the memorial.
India had launched Operation Sindoor on 7th May in the wake of the deadly Jammu and Kashmir terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people. The military operation by the Indian Armed Forces against what were termed “terrorist camps” in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has been characterized as a “precision strike” against the facilities.
In Pakistan, the responses were aerial skirmishing, drone attacks and intense cross-border shelling, resulting in escalation of military tension between the two countries.
“Sindoor” was the name of the operation and was a symbolic reference to the vermillion traditionally used to adorn the faces of married Hindu women. The idea of Justice was selected to represent the families of those martyred in the Pahalgam attack.
These six individuals forever serve as a reminder of their bravery, sacrifice and service to the country in the National War Memorial.