Two decades after Major’s supreme sacrifice in Valley, his only daughter marches out of Officers Training Academy as Lieutenant

Tribune News Service

Vijay Mohan

Chandigarh, March 9

She was barely three years old when her father made the supreme sacrifice in the line of duty. Now over two decades later, newly commissioned Lt Inayat Vats has carried forward her battle-decorated father’s legacy.

She was among the 229 cadets, including 36 women and nine others from friendly foreign countries, who passed out of the Officers Training Academy, Chennai, on Saturday after completing 49 weeks of pre-commission training.

The passing out parade, comprising the Short Service Commission -- 117 and Short Service Commission (Women) -- 31 courses, was reviewed by Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, Chief of the Air Staff, who also presented the Sword of Honour to AUO Aryan Shahi for being adjudged as the best all round cadet in his course.

Hailing from Panchkula in Haryana, Inayat has been commissioned into the Intelligence Corps. She will be the third-generation officer in her family, with her maternal grandfather also having served as a Colonel.

It was in November 2003 that her father, Maj Navneet Vats belonging to 4th Battalion of the 3rd Gorkha Rifles (4/3 GR) and then posted to 32 Rashtriya Rifles, was tasked to evacuate a telecom building in Srinagar where two terrorists were holed up.

On advancing towards the building, Maj Vats team came under heavy fire from the terrorists. One of the terrorists was shot dead in the crossfire. During the intense firefight, Major Vats and four others, including a Colonel, being severely wounded.

He received six bullets on his torso and succumbed to his injuries. He was decorated posthumously with the Shaurya Chakra for gallantry.

Inayat is an alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi and had then pursued Masters in political science from the Hindu College. She also had an offer from the Haryana government for appointment to a gazetted post under the state government’s policy for dependents of martyrs, but her heart lay in donning the olive green.

Her mother, Shivani, who was just 27 at the time of the incident and taught at the Army Public School, Chandimandir, had no hesitation in backing her daughter’s decision to join the Army. She is her only child.

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