Smriti Singh, wife of late Captain Anshuman Singh, awarded Kirti Chakra posthumously for Singh’s ultimate sacrifice to save army men.
“It was love at first sight,” said Smriti Singh, the wife of late Captain Anshuman Singh, who received the Kirti Chakra posthumously for saving his fellow soldiers from a Siachen fire.
Smriti Singh received the medal Friday from President Droupadi Murmu, the chief commander of the armed forces. India’s second-highest peacetime gallantry award is Kirti Chakra.
Smriti Singh said, “We met on the first day of our college. Not to be hyperbolic, but love at first sight. He got into Armed Forces Medical College a month later. He was smart enough to get into medical school after we met in engineering school. After one month of meeting, we had an eight-year long-distance romance and decided to get married.
After recalling their chats, Smriti said, “Unfortunately, he got posted to Siachen within two months of marriage. We had a long chat on July 18 about our lives in 50 years—building a house, having kids, etc. In the morning of 19th, I receive a call that he has died.”
At 3am in July 2023, a short circuit caused a fire in an Indian Army munitions stockpile in Siachen. Captain Singh rescued army personnel from a fiber-glass tent as the dump burned. The fire spread to a nearby medical investigation shelter. Captain Singh died after being burned while retrieving life-saving drugs from the shelter.
