Awards and decorations of the Bangladesh Liberation War explained

Awards and decorations of the Bangladesh Liberation War were decorations which were bestowed by the major warring parties during the years of the Bangladesh Liberation War. Bangladesh, India and Pakistan all issued awards and decorations during the conflict.

A listing of the medals bestowed after the Bangladesh War of Liberation are as follows:

Bangladesh

Gallantry awards

A total of 677 participants of the Bangladesh War of Independence received gallantry awards for their service and bravery. Four categories of gallantry awards were created after the war in Bangladesh. These were:

• Bir Sreshtho

The Bir Sreshtho (Bengali: বীরশ্রেষ্ঠ) (Valiant of Courage), is the highest military award of Bangladesh. It was awarded to seven freedom fighters who showed utmost bravery and died in action for their nation. They are considered martyrs.

RecipientsAll the recipients of this award were killed in action during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971. The award was published by the Bangladesh Gazette on 15 December 1973. It is the highest military award of Bangladesh, similar to the U.S. Medal of Honor or the UK's Victoria Cross. It has only been given in 1973 to seven people. Listed below are the people who have received the Bir Srestho medal. They are all considered 'Shaheed' (Martyrs).

1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. 1. Captain Mohiuddin Jahangir Sepoy Hamidur Rahman Sepoy Mostafa Kamal Engine room artificer Ruhul Amin Flight Lieutenant Matiur Rahman Lance Naik Munshi Abdur Rouf Lance Naik Nur Mohammad Sheikh

• Bir Uttom (Bengali: বীর উত্তম Valiant of Courage)

Recipients

No.	NAME	SECTOR	RANK
01		Khaja Nazimuddin Bhuiyan, (posthumous)	Sector-04	Leader Public Force/Gano Bahini
02	K M Shafiullah	Commander, S Force	Major
03	Ziaur Rahman	Commander, Z Force	Major
04	Chittoronjon Datta	Sector Commander-04	Major
05	Kazi Nuruzzaman	Sector Commander-07	Major
06	Mir Showkat Ali	Sector Commander-05	Major
07	Khaled Mosharraf	Commander, K Force	Major
08	Abdul Manzur	Sector Commander-08	Major
09	Abu Taher	Interim Sector Commander-11	Major
10	A N M Nuruzzaman	Sector Commander-03	Captain
11	Rafiqul Islam	Sector Commander-01	Captain
12	Abdus Salek Choudhury	Sector Commander-02	Captain
13	Aminul Haque	Commander, 8 East Bengal	Major
14	Mohammad Abdur Rab	Army chief, AHQ	Lieutenant Colonel
15	A K Khandker	Deputy Chief of Staff Army	Group Captain
16	Shahjahan Omar	–	–
17	Kader Siddique	–	–
18	Liakat Ali Khan	–	–
19	Shahabuddin Ahmed	–	–
20	Anwar Hossain Pahari	–	–
21	Aftab Ali	(Sector-11)3rd East Bengal	subeder
22	Motiur Rahman	–	Lieutenant Colonel

• Bir Bikrom (Bengali: বীর বিক্রম Valiant hero)

A total of 175 fighters have been awarded on 15 December 1973 for their heroic actions at the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. The government of Bangladesh declared the name of the awardees in Bangladesh Gazette on 15 December 1973. In recent 1 Bir Bikrom title award postponed. So total Bir Bikram awarded person is 174.

• Bir Protik (Bengali: বীর প্রতীক Idol of Courage)

This award was officially declared on 15 December 1973 through Bangladesh Gazette. A total of 426 people have received the award so far, all for their actions during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. In recent 2 Bir Protik title was postponed. So total numbers of Bir Protik is 424.

Civilian awards

• Independence Award

The Independence Day Award (Bengali: স্বাধীনতা পদক),^[1] also termed Independence Award (Bengali: স্বাধীনতা পুরস্কার), Swadhinata Padak, and Swadhinata Puroskar, is the highest state award given by the government of Bangladesh. Introduced in 1977, this award is bestowed upon Bangladeshi citizens or organisations in recognition of substantial contribution to one of many fields, including the War of Liberation, the language movement, education, literature, journalism, public service, science and technology, medical science, social science, song, games and sports, fine arts, rural development, and other areas.

• Bangladesh Freedom Honour -(Bengali: বাংলাদেশ স্বাধীনতা সম্মাননা Bānglādēśa sbādhīnatā sam'mānanā); posthumously conferred on former Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.^[2]
• Bangladesh Liberation War Honour -(Bengali: বাংলাদেশ মুক্তিযুদ্ধ সম্মাননা Bānglādēśa muktiyud'dha sam'mānanā); conferred to heads of states and heads of governments:

1. King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck^[3]
2. President Fidel Castro^[4]
3. President Pranab Mukherjee^[5]
4. Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral.^[6]
5. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
6. President Ram Baran Yadav
7. Prime Minister/ Acting Head of state Girija Prasad Koirala^[7]
8. Prime Minister Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala^[8]
9. General Secretary Leonid IIyich Brezhnev
10. President Nikolai Viktorovich Podgorny
11. Prime Minister Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin
12. Prime Minister Sir Edward Richard George Heath
13. President Marshal Josip Broz Tito^[8]

• Friends of Liberation War Honour -(Bengali: মুক্তিযুদ্ধ মৈত্রী সম্মাননা Muktiyud'dha maitrī sam'mānanā); conferred to individuals, six organisations and Mitra Bahini. The individuals include 257 Indians, 88 Americans, 41 Pakistanis, 39 Britons, 9 Russians, 18 Nepalese, 16 French and 18 Japanese. Three ceremonies were held between March 2012 and October 2012.

India

• Param Vir Chakra

Recipients of the Param Vir Chakra:^{[9] [10]}

S. No.	Rank	Name
01
02		Nirmal Jit Singh Sekhon (Posthumously)
03	Major	Hoshiar Singh
04	Second Lieutenant	Arun Khetarpal (Posthumously)

• Maha Vir Chakra

Recipients

S. no.	Rank	Name	Operation/War	Date of Award
01	L/Nt	Ram Ugram Pandey	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	24 November 1971
02	Sep	Ansuya Prasad	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	30 November 1971
03	Rfn	Pati Ram Gurung	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
04	Maj	Gen Shamsher Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly	1 December 1971
05	Vice Adm	Swaraj Parkash	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
06	Maj	Anup Singh Gahlaut	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	3 December 1971
07	Brig	Basdev Singh Mankotia	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
08	Maj	Gen Anant Vishwanath Natu	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
09	Maj	Gen Kashmiri Lal Rattan	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
10	Maj	Gen Prem Kumar Khanna	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
11	Lt Col	Jaivir Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
12	AVM	Vidya Bhushan Vasisht	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
13	Gp Capt	Allan Albert D’Costa	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	4 December 1971
14	Sub Maj (Hony Capt)	Bir Bahadur Pun	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
15	Cmde	Kasargod Patnashetti Gopal Rao	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
16	Gen	Arun Shridhar Vaidya	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	5 December 1971
17	Cmde	Babru Bhan Yadav	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
18	Capt	Devinder Singh Ahlawat	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
19	Lt Gen	Krishnaswamy Gowri Shankar	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
20	Brig	Kuldip Singh Chandpuri	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
21	Brig	Narinder Singh Sandhu	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
22	Wg Cdr	Padmanabha Gautam	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
23	Air Mrshl	Ravinder Nath Bhardwaj	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
24	Lt Col	Sawai Bhawani Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
25	Lt Gen	Joginder Singh Gharaya	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	6 December 1971
26	Brig	Kailash Prasad Pande	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
27	Brig	Mohindar Lal Whig	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
28	Sep	Pandurang Salunkhe	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
29	AVM	Chandan Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	7 December 1971
30	Maj Gen	Chittoor Venugopal	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
31	Lt Gen	Joginder Singh Bakshi	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
32	Sub Maj	Mohinder Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
33	Maj	Chewang Rinchen	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	8 December 1971
34	P/O	Chiman Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
35	Cdr	Joseph Pius Alfred Noronha	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
36	Brig	Udai Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
37	Capt	Mahendra Nath Mulla	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	9 December 1971
38	Nt	Sugan Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
39	Brig	Rattan Nath Sharma	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	10 December 1971
40	Maj	Gen Harish Chandra Pathak	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	11 December 1971
41	Maj	Gen Kulwant Singh Pannu	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
42	Brig	Sukhjit Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
43	Maj	Vijay Rattan Choudhry	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
44	L/Nt	Drig Pal Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	13 December 1971
45	Capt	Pradip Kumar Gour	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	14 December 1971
46	Brig	Amarjit Singh Bal	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	15 December 1971
47	Sub Maj (Hony Capt)	Thomas Philipose	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
48	Lt Col	Ved Prakash Ghai	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
49	Lt Gen	Hanut Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	16 December 1971
50	Lt Gen	Raj Mohan Vohra	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
51	Capt	Shankar Rao Shankhapan Walkar	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
52	AVM	Cecil Vivian Parker	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily	17 December 1971
53	Air Cmde	Harcharan Singh Manget	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
54	AVM	Madhavendra Banerji	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
55	Maj	Malkiat Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
56	Gp Capt	Man Mohan Bir Singh Talwar	1971 Operation Cactus-Lily
57	Air Cmde	Ramesh Sakharam Benegal	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly
58	2nd Lt.	Shamsher Singh Samra	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly
59	L/Nt	Shangara Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly
60	L/Hav	Dil Bahadur Chettri	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly	21 December 1971
61	Rear Adm	Santosh Kumar Gupta	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly
62	Brig	Vijay Kumar Berry	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly	28 December 1971
63	Air Chief Marshal	Swaroop Krishna Kaul	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly	30 December 1971
64	Sub	Nar Bahadur Chhetri	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly	31 December 1971
65	Col	Dharam Vir Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly	1 January 1972
66	Brig	Sant Singh	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly	2 January 1972
67	Maj	Daljit Singh Narang	1971 Operation Cactus-Lilly	20 January 1972

• Vir Chakra

Recipients^[11]

S. no.	Rank	Name	Branch	Award Date	Awarded for
01	Adm	Laxminarayan Ramdass	Indian Navy	1 December 1971	Operation Cactus Lily
02	Subedar	Gurdev Singh Hans	Indian Army	4 December 1971	Operation Cactus Lily
03	Maj	Nanjappa K P	Indian Army	5 December 1971	Battle of Daudkandi
04	Lt Col	Raj Singh	Indian Army	15 December 1971	Operation Cactus Lily
05	Major	PK Sharma	Indian Army	6 December 1971	Operation Cactus Lily
06	Captain	Jatinder Kumar	Indian Army		Operation Cactus Lily
07	Col	Gopal Krishna Trivedi	Indian Army	11 December 1971	Operation Cactus Lily
08	Lt Col	Satish Nambiar	Indian Army		Operation Cactus Lily
09	Air Cmde	Jasjit Singh	Indian Air Force	17 December 1971	Operation Cactus Lily
10	Grenadier	Rafiq Khan	Indian Army	19 December 1971	Operation Cactus Lily
11	Vice Adm	Arun Prakash	Indian Navy	21 December 1971	Operation Cactus Lily
12	Squadron Leader	M A Ganapathy	Indian Air force	1972	Boyra Encounter (1971)

|-| 13| 2/LT| David A Devadasan| Indian Army - 1 MAHAR| Battle of Harar Kalan| 10/11 December 1971

Pakistan

• Nishan-i-Haider

Recipients of the Nishan-E-Haider:^{[12] [13]}

1. Major Muhammad Akram (posthumously)
2. Pilot Officer Rashid Minhas (posthumously)
3. Major Shabbir Sharif (posthumously)
4. Sarwar Muhammad Hussain (posthumously)
5. Lance Naik Muhammad Mahfuz (posthumously)

See also

• Liberation War of Bangladesh
• Bangladeshi honours system
• Military awards and decorations of Bangladesh

Notes and References

1. http://www.cabinet.gov.bd/view_award.php?page=list&lang=bn Independence Day Award, Cabinet Division, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
2. Bangladesh honours Indira Gandhi with highest award. 25 July 2011. Haroon Habib. The Hindu. 29 September 2015. 10 October 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20171010075735/http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/bangladesh-honours-indira-gandhi-with-highest-award/article2293016.ece. live.
3. https://thebhutanese.bt/third-druk-gyalpo-honored-by-bangladesh/ Third druk gyalpo honored by Bangladesh
4. News: Bangladesh will remember Castro with reverence: PM. 27 November 2016. The Daily Star. 28 November 2016. Dhaka. 27 November 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20161127125430/http://www.thedailystar.net/city/bangladesh-will-remember-castro-reverence-pm-1320907. live.
5. http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/pranab-mukherjee-receives-bangladesh-s-second-highest-award-338250 Pranab Mukherjee receives Bangladesh's second highest award
6. http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=254652 Grateful to you all: PM tells 61 friends of Liberation War from abroad
7. Web site: Archived copy . 23 February 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160303065408/http://www.nepalnews.com/mobile/view_article.php?id=22279 . 3 March 2016 . dead .
8. http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=228046 Friends of freedom honoured
9. Web site: Martyrs . National Defense Academy, Pune . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110929182428/http://nda.nic.in/html/nda-martyrs.html . 29 September 2011 .
10. Web site: Param Vir Chakra. Government of India. 29 September 2015. 22 December 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20111222230606/http://india.gov.in/myindia/paramvirchakra_awards_list1.php. live.
11. Web site: Vir Chakra Awardee List . 27 June 2014 . Bharat Rakshak . 3 April 2015 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150403153718/http://bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Database/Awards/awards.php?qaward=VrC . live .
12. Web site: Nishan-e-Haider holders of Pakistan Army. 29 September 2015. 24 April 2013. https://web.archive.org/web/20130424162206/http://pakistanpaedia.com/celeb/nh/celeb_1.htm. live.
13. Web site: Nishan-e-Haider . Shaheed Foundation Pakistan . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140812211253/http://www.shaheedfoundation.org/nishanehaider.asp . 12 August 2014 .