Kargil hero and Vir Chakra awardee Subedar Major Tsewang Morup dies in road accident

People who knew him well recall him as a brave person who took initiatives.

Hony Captain Chhering Stobdan (retd), also a Vir Chakra recipient for the Kargil conflict, remembers him as a person who took initiative. “I did not work as much with him, but I met him at official functions. I knew that he took a lot of initiatives in his work. That is why he rose to be a Subedar Major,” he said.

Phonsok Ladakhi, who interviewed him 20 years ago for a film, says he was a fearless person and it’s no wonder that he undertook such a dangerous assignment during the Kargil conflict.

According to Subedar Major Morup’s citation, in the thick of the 1999 conflict, he had volunteered for route opening to the top under the leadership of an officer, a task that involved crevasse-ridden vertical ascent of 1,800 feet, besides surmounting an overhang of 50 metres with a slope of 125-degree.

His citation said that he was undaunted by devastating enemy artillery and small arms fire. Risking his personal safety, his citation added, Subedar Major Morup (then a Sepoy) along with the team assaulted the sangars (makeshift bunkers), firing from the hip and lobbing grenades and cleared them with speed and well-rehearsed drills.

“The enemy was totally surprised by the bold act and daredevilry of the assault team and ran helter-skelter. Sepoy Tsewang Morup shot down two enemy personnel with a deadly burst from his personal weapon,” his citation said, adding he charged towards the farthest sangar along with two of his team members and in the ensuing hand-to-hand fight silenced the enemy resistance.

“Members of the assault team captured the strategic post in broad daylight by 16.00 hours. Arms and ammunition were recovered besides capture of four bodies,” it said.

The junior commissioned officer came from an illustrious military family.

He is the son of gallantry award winner Hony Naib Subedar Chhering Mutup, who as a Lance Havildar took part in Operation Meghdoot in Siachen. His Ashoka Chakra citation of 1985 said that he had led his patrol gallantly amid extreme hostile conditions of altitude, high velocity winds, heavy snow, and blizzards, to accomplish an extremely difficult assignment in a forward location of Jammu and Kashmir.