New Delhi: On this day in the year 1994, Captain Sunil Khokhar of the Indian Artillery died fighting in the Siachen Glacier area.

According to the Indian army, on 20 February 1994, Captain Sunil Khokhar volunteered to man the Pahalawan Observation post located at a height of 19,856 feet in Jammu and Kashmir. Showing exemplary bravery, he sought permission to remain on the post beyond his scheduled tenure of 45 days.

It was during the early hours of May 5, 1994, the enemy launched an attack on the strategic post with an aim to capture it. This resulted in a heavy exchange of fire. After blunting the enemy attempts, a patrol was launched and the search team was able to locate the enemy camp site.

Two days later on 7 May, Captain Sunil Khokhar was detailed to accompany the patrol. At his own initiative, he planned to carry out the silent registration of targets for directing the artillery fire on the enemy camp site. While carrying out his task, he came under enemy small arms fire but with utter regard to his personal safety this courageous officer continued registering the targets till the time he was hit by an enemy bullet that fatally wounded him.

Born on January 25, 1965, Khokhar from Rohtak, Haryana was honoured with Vir Chakra posthumously in 1996.