Republic Day: 51 BSF officials get police medals

As many as 51 Border Security Force (BSF) personnel were honoured with the distinguished and meritorious service police medals on the occasion of the Republic Day, a force spokesperson said on Sunday. The awardees for the distinguished service medal include Inspector General (IG) Sonali Mishra and Deputy IGs M S Sharma, R S Rathore, Pradeep Katyal and V S Yadav.

Mishra, a 1993-batch Indian Police Service officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre, is at present serving as the chief of the intelligence or the 'G' branch of the force. She has also headed the BSF formation in the Kashmir valley as its IG. Those decorated with the president's police medal for meritorious service include Commandants Rajan Sud, Nilotpal Kumar Pandey, Harendra Singh Rautela and Constable (cook) Shankar Kumar Ghosh among others. 

Nine other personnel of the border guarding force have been decorated with gallantry medals.  The BSF is primarily tasked to guard Indian frontiers with Pakistan and Bangladesh apart from being deployed to conduct anti-Naxal operations in Chhattisgarh and Odisha.