Major Akshay was born along with his twin sister Neha, at 8.05 on 6th December 1985 to his parents Mrs. Meghna and Wg. Cdr. Girish Kumar (Retd. After early education in different schools in Bidar, Wellington (Nilgiris), Gorakhpur and Chennai, in 1996, the twins joined Kumaran’s School (CBSE) in class six. Cadet Akshay Girish (111 NDA Course) was trained at the prestigious Tri-Services National Defence Academy from 2003-2006 after which he went to the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun for one more year of specialized Army training.

In 2009, Akshay was awarded the Chief of Army Staff Commendation (COAS Medal) for leading an exceptional rescue of injured civilians near Kupwara in Kashmir.

Nagrota Attack: 29 Nov 2016

Major Akshay Girish had moved to Nagrota (J&K) with his unit in September 2016. On the fateful day of 29th November when terrorists attacked a neighboring Artillery unit at about 5.30am in Nagrota and killed four soldiers before entering two residential buildings, Akshay was chosen to lead his unit’s Quick Reaction Team(QRT) to fight the terrorists.

Three terrorists had taken vantage positions in two residential buildings that housed officer’s families and a Mess and the QRT vehicle came under heavy terrorist fire even as they entered the location. Akshay showed exemplary leadership in assessing the danger and moved in with his team to take counter-terrorist action. Their task was to prevent terrorists from killing the women, children and unarmed men who were trapped within their homes. Along with his buddy Naik Chittaranjan Debbarma and Major Kunal Gosavi Mannadir (Artillery), Akshay and his team not only engaged the terrorists and prevented the evil designs of the terrorists to take hostages and massacre innocents, they also ensured that the terrorists could not spread out in the cantonment area and destroy important assets.

After Major Kunal was martyred in the firefight, Major Akshay and his team continued to fight courageously and kept the terrorists pinned down. In doing so, Akshay was hit by 2 bullets and finally laid down his life after a grenade was launched at him. Naik Chittaranjan was also martyred. While the soldiers made the supreme sacrifice, they ensured that all 16 people who had been held hostage were saved. All the terrorists were also neutralized by additional forces within few hours.

Source:https://www.honourpoint.in/