Abdul Hamid was awarded the Param Vir Chakra in 1965 - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
October 4, 2021
A post is being widely shared on social media claiming that the achievements of Abdul Hamid who received Param Vir Chakra for his actions during India-Pakistan war of 1965, are fake. The post even claims that the Congress party gave a wrong history and that the Patton tanks during the war were blown by Chandrabhan Sahu and not Abdul Hamid. Let us fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Achievements of Abdul Hamid who received Param Vir Chakra for his actions during India-Pakistan war of 1965, are fake.
Fact: Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid received the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest wartime gallantry medal on 10 September 1965 posthumously. Abdul Hamid is remembered for his dexterity of shooting down the ‘patton tanks’ in the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war. The official documents also list his achivements. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
According to the Gallantry Awards website of the Ministry of Defence, Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid received the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest military decoration. He received the award on 10 September 1965 posthumously. Abdul Hamid was part of the ‘4 GRENADIERS’ unit.
Param Vir Chakra is India’s highest wartime gallantry medal. It was instituted on 26 January 1950 and came into retrospective effect from 15 August 1947. 21 war heroes were awarded the Param Vir Chakra since 1947. Abdul Hamid was the 10 person to receive the award in 1965. The official government documents list his claims and do not dispute any of them. There is also no mention of a person named Chandrabhan Sahu in the list of awardees. The NCERT had developed a book, ‘Veer Gaatha: Stories of Param Vir Chakra Awardees’ in honour of the war heroes which lists the stories of these awardees.
In 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid a wreath at the Asal Uttar Memorial on the Amritsar-Khem Karan Road in Punjab and at the tomb of Company Quarter Master Havildar Abdul Hamid. Modi also tweeted that Abdul Hamid was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his gallantry.
Paying homage to CQMH Abdul Hamid. He was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his gallantry. pic.twitter.com/fkgdEGEiZu
Abdul Hamid was born on 01 July 1933 in Dhamupur, in Ghazipur district of Uttar Pradesh. He joined Grenadiers regiment of the Indian Army on 27 December 1954 and was later posted to the regiment’s 4th Battalion. Abdul Hamid is remembered for his dexterity in shooting down the ‘patton tanks’ in the 1965 war. He destroyed many enemy tanks, according to a tweet by the Prime Minister, ‘During this battle CQMH Abdul Hamid single handedly destroyed 3 enemy tanks & helped stop their offensive, inspite of being mortally wounded.’ According to the official citation of the Param Vir Chakra at least two tanks were destroyed.
An article about the history of the India-Pakistan war of 1965, on the Indian Army website, talks about the bravery of Abdul Hamid; there is no mention of Chandrabhan Sahu in this article.
To sum it up, Abdul Hamid was awarded the Param Vir Chakra in 1965, and his achievements are not fake.