Overview
- On May 30, Chief of Army Staff General Upendra Dwivedi presented Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari with the Commendation Disc for her courage and operational leadership.
- Bhandari’s unit of seven BSF women held two forward posts under sustained Pakistani fire for three days and nights after declining offers to withdraw.
- The team’s heavy retaliatory fire silenced three hostile enemy positions and forced Pakistani forces to abandon nearby forward locations.
- Operation Sindoor also included precision strikes on nine terror camps and BSF counter-attacks on 76 Pakistani outposts, 42 forward defence sites and three terrorist launch pads.
- A third-generation officer from Uttarakhand, Bhandari became the first woman in India’s armed forces to command frontline combat troops.