Government officially names, for the first time, 6 Indian military personnel killed in Operation Sindoor

The government has for the first time officially disclosed the names of six Indian military personnel who were killed during Operation Sindoor, the cross-border military campaign launched in May last year to destroy terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The names of the six personnel, five from the Army and one from the Indian Air Force have been published in the Roll of Honour section on the National War Memorial website and will be engraved on the memorial's granite walls in New Delhi, marking the first formal public acknowledgement of fatalities suffered by the Indian armed forces during the operation.

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The defence personnel are Subedar Major Pawan Kumar of Headquarters 10 Infantry Brigade; Rifleman Sunil Kumar of 4 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry; Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar of 5 Field Regiment; Agniveer Mood Muralinaik of 851 Light Regiment; Havildar Sunil Kumar Singh of 237 Field Workshop Company; and Sergeant Surendra Kumar of 39 Wing of the Indian Air Force.

Rifleman Sunil Kumar was awarded the Vir Chakra, India's third-highest battle honour, while Sergeant Surendra Kumar received the Vayu Medal. On June 8, President Droupadi Murmu presented the Vir Chakra posthumously to Sunil Kumar at the Defence Investiture Ceremony; the award was received by his mother Sudesh Kumari and father Yash Paul.

The names are engraved on a special brick at the National War Memorial, which features the Tyag Chakra, a circle of sacrifice comprising 16 concentric circular walls built entirely from granite. Each brick bears the name, rank, and regiment of a fallen martyr who made the supreme sacrifice since Independence.

Until now, the government had not officially disclosed the identities of military personnel killed during Operation Sindoor, despite reports in the immediate aftermath of the four-day conflict in May 2025. The publication of the names in the National War Memorial's Roll of Honour constitutes the first official confirmation of the armed forces personnel who lost their lives during the operation.

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Operation Sindoor was launched in the early hours of May 7, 2025, weeks after the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, in which 26 civilians, most of them tourists, were killed.