Major Khan received a gallantry award for the successful elimination of the top leader of an insurgent group in Manipur.

"As a soldier I was lucky to evade the bullets of the militants out there. Manipur is a place where the problem of insurgency is very deep-rooted," he says.

After receiving information that a top militant was holed inside a house, Major Khan along with his men from the Maratha Regiment planned a meticulous operation with surgical precision. The endgame: He eliminated the militant from within close range.

"When you confront an armed insurgent with a gun in his hands pointing towards you and the magazine loaded with bullets, the first thing that comes to your mind is to press the trigger or else he will do it," says Major Khan when asked what did he do when he came face-to-face with a dreaded terrorist.

Speaking in awe of Shivaji, he says: "If you look at the history of guerilla warfare it was started by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. I take pride in saying that I belong to the Maratha Regiment instituted in the name of Shivaji Maharaj."

Major Khan, who is expecting rakhis from his sisters in Baroda and Delhi, says he told his boys to look after their buddies and that he will look after them before going on the operation that won him a Sena Medal.

Photograph: Major Jawed Ali Khan.

Also read: This soldier died for us

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