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Age: 22 Years

Hometown: Noida

Death Cause: Gun Shot Wound

Bio/Wiki
Other name	Vijyant
Nickname	Robin
Profession	Army Personnel
Famous for	Participating in the Kargil War
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters**- 175 cm** in meters**- 1.75 m** in feet & inches**- 5’ 9”**
Weight (approx.)	in kilograms**- 60 kg** in pounds**- 132 lbs**
Eye Colour	Dark Brown
Hair Colour	Black
Military Service
Service/Branch	Indian Army
Rank	Captain
Service Years	12 December 1998 - 29 June 1999 (till his death)
Unit	• Army Service Corps • 2nd Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles
Service Number	IC-58278 M
Military Decorations & Legacy	• Vir Chakra (15 August 1999) • Helicopter base at Drass, Kargil, dedicated by the Indian Army (26 December 2003) • A road, Captain Vijayant Thapar Marg, named after him by the UP government (following his demise)
Personal Life
Date of Birth	26 December 1976 (Sunday)
Birthplace	Naya Nangal, Punjab, India
Date of Death	29 June 1999
Place of Death	Knoll Hill, Dras, Kargil, Jammu and Kashmir, India
Age (at the time of death)	22 Years
Death Cause	Shot in the head during the Kargil War
Zodiac sign	Capricorn
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Noida, Uttar Pradesh
School	• St. Mary’s Academy, Meerut • St Joseph’s Academy • Army Public School • Dayanand Anglo-Vedic (DAV) College, Chandigarh Note: He passed class 12th from DAV, Chandigarh.
College/University	Sri Guru Nanak Dev Khalsa College
Educational Qualification	Commerce graduate
Religion	Hinduism Note: He was a follower of Lord Rama and Karni Mata.
Food Habit	Vegetarian Note: He was a puritan and had vowed never to eat meat.
Relationships & More
Marital Status (at the time of death)	Unmarried
Affairs/Girlfriends	Vijayant Thapar was said to be romantically involved with a woman. In a letter penned to his family in June 1999, Vijayant discussed about her and requested his mother, Tripta, if she could pay her a visit.
Family
Wife/Spouse	N/A
Parents	Father- Virender Thapar (retired colonel of the Indian Army) Mother- Tripta Thapar Note: Parents' image in siblings' section.
Siblings	Brother- Vijender Thapar (works in the corporate sector)
Other Relatives	Grandfather- J. S. Thapar (served in the Indian Army for 15 years) Great-grandfather- Karta Ram Thapar (served in the British Indian Army as a captain and took part in numerous battle campaigns)
Favourites
Sweet Dish	Kheer
Snack	Chocolate

Some Lesser Known Facts About Captain Vijayant Thapar

• Vijayant Thapar served as a captain in the Indian Army. He took part in Operation Vijay, the codename for the 1999 Kargil War, for which he was awarded Vir Charka, i.e., India’s third-highest gallantry award.

• Vijayant lived across various cities in India since his father was an officer in the Indian Army.

  

  Vijayant Thapar as an infant (with his mother) and as a young child (with the football)

• He shot a pistol for the first time in his childhood.

• When he was a child, he frequently visited his father’s battalion, observing soldiers taking part in diverse sports like boxing and wrestling. This sparked his passion for athletics.

• According to his parents, he was very passionate about serving in the armed forces since childhood. He got motivated to become an officer as he used to see troops and tanks parade in the cantonment with guns.

• Before enlisting in the Indian Army, he engaged in fitness training and pursued bodybuilding activities.

  

  Vijayant posing for a photo at a gym

• After graduation, Vijayant appeared for the Combined Defence Services Examination (CDSE). He managed to pass the exams on the first attempt. According to his mother, Tripta, Vijayant wished to pursue a career in the military despite his parents’ disapproval. Tripta talked about it, in an interview, and said,

  He was bent to get into the Indian Army and went against our decision. He always said No.. It is the Indian Army that I shall join, or I shall not work anywhere else. So Col Thapar (his father) gave him an ultimatum that if he gets selected in the army on the first attempt, he can join it. However, there was to be no second chance.”

  

  Vijayant Thapar’s photo taken when he was training at IMA

• After his selection, Vijayant reported to the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun in 1997. There, he received military training and was even awarded a silver star for standing second in the merit of the first term of training.

  

  A photo of Vijayant Thapar taken while he was undergoing training at IMA

• At IMA, he and a few officer cadets (known as Gentlemen Cadets) were chosen to undergo military parachutist training. This earned him the academy designation of a corporal.

  

  Vijayant Thapar (kneeling on the left) before making his parachute jumps

• Thapar also achieved numerous accolades in sports, particularly in swimming and water polo.

  

  Vijayant with the swimming trophy that he won at IMA

• On 12 December 1998, Vijayant Thapar completed his military training and joined the Army Service Corps (ASC) as a lieutenant.

• Soon after, he was sent on an attachment to the 2nd Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles and was asked to report to the unit in Gwalior, Madhya Pradesh.

• After Thapar stayed in Gwalior for a couple of months, his battalion was moved to Kigam, Kupwara district, Jammu and Kashmir. There, the battalion was involved in anti-insurgency operations, which was at its highest in the 1990s.

• While giving an interview, Thapar’s father recalled a conversation with Vijayant in which he informed him about an operation in which a militant had shot approximately thirty bullets in his direction.

  

  A picture of Thapar taken with the men and officers of the 2nd Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles

• After being deployed in Kashmir, Vijayant formed a close relationship with a child named Ruksana. According to Vijayant’s parents, Ruksana had lost her ability to speak due to the trauma she endured after her father was shot dead in front of her by militants. Thapar not only supplied food to her family but also contributed Rs. 50 from his salary to support her family’s sustainability and her education. During a media interaction, Virender Thapar talked about it and said,

  In one of his last phone calls, he told me to get a few suits stitched for Ruksana, and that he would take it with him when he comes on leave… But he never came.”

  

  A photo of Vijayant Thapar with Ruksana

• Vijayant was ordered to undergo basic military courses at the Infantry School in Mhow after serving for some time in Kashmir.

• From there, he went to Belgaum to undertake advanced military courses.

• In May 1999, as reports circulated about the Pakistani forces seizing certain strategically important peaks in the Kargil sector of Ladakh, Thapar and his battalion received orders to relocate to the region, engage the enemy, and reclaim control of the peaks.

  

  Vijayant Thapar posing for a photo with the Alpha Company men in Kargil

• Thapar’s battalion was ordered to reclaim Tololing from the hands of the Pakistani troops on 11 June 2023. Following the initial unsuccessful assault led by Major Mohit Saxena, Thapar took charge of a platoon from Alpha “A” Company and launched an attack on the Barbaad Bunker section of Tololing. During this operation, he successfully neutralized two enemy soldiers and seized a large stockpile of weapons and ammunition.

• The capture of Tololing on 13 June 1999 marked the first major victory for the Indian Army since the beginning of the war.

  

  A letter written by Vijayant to his parents after the capture of Tololing

• Thereafter, Thapar’s battalion was ordered to reclaim Three Pimples, Knoll, and Lone Hill features in the Kargil sector. Vijayant’s “A” company received the order to attack and capture Knoll.

• Thapar penned an emotional letter to his family before he attacked Knoll. The letter reached his family after he was killed in the battle.

  

  A photo of the letter that Captain Vijayant Thapar wrote to his family

• Thapar took charge of an “A” company platoon on the evening of 28 June 1999 to reclaim Pakistani positions at Knoll. The mission, however, faced a setback when Major P. Acharya, his company commander, lost his life in the battle. Undeterred by the loss, Thapar took control of the mission and fought with the Pakistani troops in close-quarters combat.

  

  A photo describing the features of Knoll where Thapar fought and was killed

• After Thapar reached closer to the Pakistani posts on the top of Knoll, he saw that three enemy machine gun posts effectively guarded the area and that destroying the bunkers was crucial for the Indian troops to capture Knoll successfully. To neutralize the bunkers, Vijayant moved out of his cover and moved across an open area; however, while doing so, a bullet struck him on his head, leading to his death on the battlefield.

• Captain Vijayant Thapar’s remains were taken to his hometown in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, where his last rites were conducted with full military honours. His father, in an interview, talked about it and said,

  I was in Alwar then. I was hoping he was only wounded, but the worst had happened… I retired that year too. It’s been a long time since his passing, but the family has been holding on to his memory firmly.”

  

  A snippet of The Pakistan Times talking about the death of Captain Vijayant Thapar during the Kargil War

• Vijayant Thapar’s parents disclosed, in an interview, that they named him after an Indian main battle tank. His father talked about it and said,

  I named him after the Army main battle tank Vijayant. It means victorious in the end. The motto of his unit, 2 Rajputana Rifles, was also Ever Victorious. It was a perfect fit.”

• Thapar loved listening to songs, especially from the 1997 Hindi film Border.

• As per his family, if Vijayant Thapar had not enlisted in the Indian Army, he would have opted for the Indian Air Force.

• “Live Life King Size” was his most liked quote. He used to sign off at the end of the letters that he wrote to his family by writing this quote.

  

  Vijayant Thapar’s favourite quote written by him in a letter to his parents

• According to Virender Thapar, his father, he renamed the nickname of Vijayant’s younger brother from Sparrow to Birdie at Vijayant’s insistence. The nickname was changed after a Sparrow chick died following a fall in the balcony of their home. In an interview, Virender talked about it and said,

  Our family has been very fond of birds. I nicknamed Vijayant, ‘Robin’, and my other son, Vijender, as ‘Sparrow’. However, one day while I was posted at Mhow, a sparrow chick fell down dead. Vijayant asked me to change his sibling’s nickname as he felt that a sparrow was not a very good looking bird. I changed my other son, Vijender’s nickname to ‘Birdie’ at Robin’s behest.”

• Vijayant Thapar led a Puritan way of life, refraining from alcohol, tobacco, and non-vegetarian food consumption.

  

  An excerpt from Captain Vijayant Thapar’s diary

• He was an equestrian.

  

  Vijayant sitting on a horse while he was at IMA

• General Ved Prakash Malik, who back then was the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), penned a heartfelt letter to the family of Captain Vijayant Thapar after he was killed in the 1999 Kargil War.

  

  The note of appreciation that was written by General Ved Prakash Malik

• Actor Amar Upadhyay portrayed Vijayant Thapar’s character in the Hindi film LOC: Kargil, which was released in 2003.

  

  Amar Upadhyay as Captain Thapar in LOC: Kargil

• Since his passing, his mother has been making Kheer for him on his birthday.

• Captain Thapar had a habit of writing a diary. In the diary, he not only mentioned the things that he wished to do but also the tasks that he had to do daily. According to the diary, Vijayant had planned on adopting a child with the intent of looking after the child’s expenses. He also had written that he wanted to donate his eyes and other organs after he died.

• Following his death, the 2nd Battalion of the Rajputana Rifles constructed a small temple at Knoll in his memory.

  

  The temple that was made by the Rajputana Rifles in memory of Vijayant Thapar after the end of the 1999 Kargil War

• A biography about Vijayant Thapar, written by his father, was published in 2020. The title of the book is Vijyant at Kargil: The Biography of a War Hero.

  

  Cover page of Vijyant at Kargil: The Biography of a War Hero

• Every year, Virender Thapar visits Knoll to pay homage to his son.

  

  Vijayant’s father pointing at the rock behind which Vijayant took cover during the assault on Knoll

• The DLF Mall in Noida, in July 2023, exhibited Captain Thapar’s military uniform for the visitors to see.

  

  Parents of Vijayant Thapar standing next to the uniform of their son displayed at the DLF mall in Noida

• Krishnan A and Peddi Sai Kaushik, two National Cadet Corps (NCC) students, biked over 3,500 kilometres in August 2023 to honour the Kargil War heroes at the Kargil War Memorial in Dras. In an interview, the duo revealed that they drew inspiration from Vijayant Thapar’s battle stories to do so.

  

  A photo of the NCC cadets taken at the Kargil War Memorial in Dras

• Virender and Tripta Thapar appeared in Indian Idol, a singing reality TV show, in November 2023. There, they narrated the stories of Captain Vijayant Thapar.

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