10 ITBP commandos including barber given bravery medal for

Ten ITBP commandos including a non-combatised trooper working as barber, who valiantly thwarted terrorist strikes on Indian Consulates in Afghanistan, have been accorded top police gallantry medals on the eve of the 70th Independence Day.
The attacks took place at the Indian Consulates of Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad on January 3 and March 2.
The Indo-Tibetan Border Police was tasked to provide security to the Indian Embassy in capital Kabul and the four Consulates, with Heart and Kandahar being the other two.
The Indian facilities in Afghanistan face threats from al-Qaeda and other affiliated terrorist groups.
While ITBP Inspector Subhash Chandra, Head Constable Virendra Singh and Constable Sunil Bisht have been decorated with the country's top President Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG), seven others including Inspector Dinesh Sharma, HC Mohardhwaj and Constables Sandeep Ghosh, Harinandan Gurunani, Satish Kumar, Ravinder Singh and Bhupender Singh have been awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG).

Satish stands out of the lot as he was deployed with the ITBP unit as a barber but with terrorists mounting heavy gunfire on the Mazar-i-sharif consulate, he grabbed a rifle and made good use of his firing skills imparted as part of basic weapon handling during induction into the border guarding force.

Officials said paramilitary forces recruit staff in various ranks like barber, cobbler, washerman and cook to aid regular combat units and they are trained to pick a weapon and fight only under extreme circumstances.
"Kumar was the lone who was recruited in the non-combatised ranks of the force.

But he fought shoulder-to-shoulder with his buddies," a senior official said.
The citation for the men including Satish said their "quick reaction with total disregard to their own safety and braving intense hostile gun and rocket fire resulted in elimination and injury to terrorists and compelled other fidayeens to run for shelter in adjacent buildings.
It said the commandos "firmly stood their ground amidst heavy firing of rocket shells and bullets" on both the occasions when these vital Indian assets in Afghanistan came under attack.
It said that during the Jalalabad attack, the ITBP men "exercised exemplary fire discipline and valour by not retaliating with in-discriminatory fire otherwise such action would have invited collateral loss to the arriving Afghan reinforcements."

The 85,000 personnel strong ITBP, raised in the aftermath of the 1962 Chinese conflict, has earlier too received gallantry decorations for its work in Afghanistan including military medals.