NEW DELHI: Under an uncharacteristic overcast sky on Thursday, when President Pranab Mukherjee handed over the Ashok Chakra, India’s highest peacetime gallantry award, to Chasen Lowang — the widow of Havildar Hangpan Dada of the Assam Regiment at the Republic Day parade — there were tears of both sorrow and hope in her eyes.
The tears were for her husband who died combating militants in Kashmir while the hopes were fueled by the desire to see her two children, a 10-year-old daughter Roukhin Dada and a seven-year-old son Sewang Dada, follow their father’s footsteps in the Army.
Lowang said, “It is such a big award. I am so proud of my husband. I am happy but sad at the same time.”
On May 26, near Nawgaon (in Kashmir), at the icy heights at 12,500 ft, Havildar Dada after a face-to-face fight with militants shot dead two terrorists in close combat, killed another in hand-to-hand combat before taking in a hail of bullets.
