Twenty personnel of the India-China LAC guarding Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force have been awarded gallantry medals for displaying bravery during standoff and clashes between militaries of the two countries in the eastern Ladakh region last year.
These medals for bravery are among the total 1,380 service medals announced by the Union government for various central and state police forces on the eve of Independence Day.
There are two President's Police Medal for Gallantry (PPMG), 628 Police Medal for Gallantry (PMG), 88 President's police medal for distinguished service and 662 police medals for meritorious service in the latest awards list.
Sub Inspector Amar Deep of Jammu and Kashmir Police (JKP) and late Head Constable Kale Sunil Dattatraya (posthumously) of the CRPF are the only two recipients of the top bravery medal — President's Police Medal for Gallantry.
The maximum gallantry medals at 257 (1 PPMG and 256 PMG) were earned by the JKP, followed by the Central Reserve Police Force at 151 (1 PPMG and 150 PMG), an official list released by the Union home ministry said.
Among the 23 gallantry medals for the ITBP, twenty are for operations that took place during the May-June 2020 clashes with the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) in Ladakh where the central paramilitary is deployed shoulder-to-shoulder with the Army as part of its primary mandate to guard the 3,488-km-long icy Line of Actual Control (LAC).
Out of the 20, eight personnel have…