20 J&K Police officers honoured with 'Kendriya Grih Mantri Dakshata Padak' for Operation Mahadev

Srinagar, Oct 31: Twenty officers of the Jammu and Kashmir Police have been awarded the “Kendriya Grih Mantri Dakshata Padak” by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for their role in the high-risk Operation Mahadev, reported Republic TV.

The operation led to the elimination of three Pakistani terrorists, three months after the Pahalgam terror attack.

Among the slain militants was Suleiman alias Asif, the mastermind behind the April 22 Pahalgam attack, along with Jibran and Hamza Afghani. Jibran was also linked to the Sonamarg Tunnel attack in October 2024. Security forces recovered an M4 carbine rifle, two AK rifles, and other arms and ammunition from the encounter site.

The decorated officers include IG Kashmir Vidhi Kumar Birdi, DIG Central Kashmir Pande Rajiv Omprakash, SSP Srinagar G.V. Sundeep Chakraborty, SP Cargo Tanweer Ahmed Dar, SP Zoheb Tanveer, DSP Vikram Nag, DSP Mubashir Naiz, DSP Shakir Hassan, Inspector Taseer Hamid, SI Anchal Singh, SI Firoz Ahmad Dar, ASI Basharat Rasool Shah, ASI Mohammad Shafi, HC Javed Ahmed, HC Sandeep Khujuria, SGCT Varun Singh, SGCT Mehmood Khan, CT Suhail Abbas, and CT Basharat Qadir.