On India's 70th Independence day, City Spidey met late Captain Devinder Singh Jass's family in Mahagun Mansion Phase 1, Indirapuram. Jass was an army captain who gave up the comfort of his white collar job to join the Indian Army.
Devinder Singh Jass was a Captain in the 1 Parachute Regiment, a 250-year-old elite special forces unit of the Indian Army. The unit thrives on the idea of balidaan, or sacrifice. Then a 26-year-old Army officer, he was killed in a fierce encounter with Lashkar terrorists in Sopore in Jammu and Kashmir on February 23 2010. As his father, BS Jass, narrates, Devinder was found dead while still in a firing stance, leaned against a wall.
"Jass was an energetic and helpful boy who always dreamt of serving in the defense forces," narrates the proud father. "He once tried to get through NDA after school but could not clear the entrance exams. Thereafter, he went on to become an engineer and graduated from GLA University in Mathura in 2005. He then pursued his MBA from IIIT Allahabad in 2007. Jass even secured a lucrative job in an MNC but opted to join the Indian Military Academy instead."
Jass trained at the Indian Military Academy in Dehradun for a year. He was commissioned for the first time as a Lieutenant in the Corps of Signals, where he served till 2008. After that he volunteered to join special forces. After few months of training, he was inducted into the elite 1 Parachute Regiment in January 2009 and was posted in Kupwara in November 2009.
The only son of Bhupinder Singh Jass and Dalbir Kaur Jass, Captain Jass, along with Naik Selva Kumar and paratrooper Imtiyaz Ahmad Thokar died fighting terrorists in Sopore's Chinkipora area, 54 km from Srinagar.
He was awarded the Kirti Chakra, an Indian military decoration awarded for valour, courageous action or self-sacrifice away from the field of battle in 2010.
This Independence Day, we salute him and many others like him who died fighting for the nation.
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