NEW DELHI: More than a year after Operation Sindoor, the Union government has officially recorded the names of the six military personnel who lost their lives during the operation by including them in the Roll of Honour at the National War Memorial (NWM), marking the first official listing of the fatalities from the conflict.
The names have also been inscribed on the Tyag Chakra (Circle of Sacrifice) at the memorial in New Delhi. The monument comprises 16 concentric granite walls bearing the names, ranks and units of personnel who have laid down their lives in service since Independence. The six are listed on Wall 3D under the 2025 Roll of Honour.
Those named 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 No. 39 Wing of the Indian Air Force.
Two of the six were decorated for gallantry. Rifleman Sunil Kumar was posthumously awarded the Vir Chakra, India’s third-highest wartime gallantry award, while Sergeant Surendra Kumar was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal.
Operation Sindoor was launched in the early hours of May 7 last year, in response to the April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians, most of them tourists. Indian armed forces struck nine terror-linked sites in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir associated with Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. The cessation of hostilities took place on May 10 after the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan agreed to halt military action.
Importantly, the list includes Agniveer Mood Muralinaik of 851 Light Regiment, the only Agniveer to lose his life during Operation Sindoor.
Naik was killed in Pakistani shelling in Poonch on May 9, 2025. His death has since become the subject of a legal challenge before the Bombay High Court, where his family has sought parity in pensionary and welfare benefits with the families of regular soldiers.
The Centre has maintained that Agniveers are entitled to all benefits prescribed under the Agnipath scheme but not to pensionary benefits available to regular service personnel.