People thronged Major Harminder's house to congratulate the parents of the 18 Grenadiers warrior whose heroic deeds will be remembered for generations to come.

Major Harminder's mother, Surinder Pal Kaur, said her son's sacrifice was an honour for her and the family. "It was Pintu's childhood dream to join the Army and do something for the country," she added.

Major Harminder had been wounded in the left arm but managed to engage three militants armed with Kalashnikovs and grenades in an eyeball-to-eyeball encounter in a remote north Kashmir village on April 13.

The 18 Grenadiers Major was shot through the temple by the third militant but not before he had gunned down two of them. Harminder led the commando platoon of his battalion in what has been described as a "dare-devil" operation in a congested locality of Sadurkotbala village in Manasbal.

"Apne liye to sabhi jeeten hain, aadmi to woh hai jo auron ke liye jiye, auron ke liye mare," said Rupinder Pal Kaur, late major's wife. She had given birth to a boy, Navteshwar, three months before the death of her husband.

The major's father Capt (retd) Harpal Singh, now an estate officer with the Punjab School Education Board, said, "The award in anyway can not compensate the loss we have suffered. But then, I am among those few fathers who can take pride even in his child's death," said Harpal. "I wish Harminder had been alive and with us to enjoy this glorious moment," he added, before breaking down.

Harminder was an alumnus of the Khalsa Senior Secondary School, Kharar, and Government College, S. A. S. Nagar. He got his commission in the Army in March 1992 and was promoted recently to the rank of major. He had qualified for a pilot's job with the Air Force, but decided against it. Harminder's younger brother Ravi Inder Pal Singh is in merchant navy.