Kirti Chakra Awardee Maj Gen Sunil Kumar Razdan, India’s First Wheelchair-Bound Two-Star Officer, Dies at 71
Major General Sunil Kumar Razdan, Kirti Chakra, Vishisht Seva Medal, one of the Indian Army’s most admired Paratroopers and the first wheelchair-bound officer to rise to the rank of Major General, has died at the age of 71. A veteran of 7th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, Maj Gen Razdan was widely respected not only for his battlefield gallantry in Kashmir but also for the extraordinary military career he forged after injuries in combat left him permanently paraplegic.
His last rites will be held at Brar Square, Delhi Cantonment, on 14 August 2026 at 12:00 PM. Veterans, serving personnel, members of the Parachute Regiment fraternity and admirers from across the defence community are expected to gather to pay their respects.
Born on 8 October 1954 in Happy Valley, in what is now the Shillong area of Meghalaya, Razdan came from a Kashmiri Pandit family with a long military tradition rooted in Purshyar, Habakadal in Srinagar. Service in uniform was part of his family’s inheritance: his grandfather had served in the British Indian Army during the Burma campaign in the Second World War, and his father also served in the Army.
Commissioned into the elite 7 Para, he quickly built a reputation as an officer of unusual stamina and drive. A long-distance runner, he was known among comrades by the nickname “Greyhound”, a reflection of his endurance and competitive spirit. He was also an avid motorcyclist, and by temperament embodied the physically demanding, high-risk culture long associated with the Parachute Regiment.
The 1994 Kashmir operation that defined his legend
The episode that came to define Maj Gen Razdan’s life unfolded on the night of 8 October 1994 — his 40th birthday — during a counter-terrorism operation at Damal Hanzipur in the Naugam area of South Kashmir. Then Lieutenant Colonel Razdan received intelligence that militants had abducted 14 Kashmiri Muslim women between the ages of 14 and 30 and were holding them inside a four-storey building.
After a demanding approach march, he led a small force of about 20 soldiers to the target. The rescue mission was designed to begin silently, but the militants were alerted, turning the operation into a prolonged and intense close-quarter battle in and around the building.
Razdan entered the fight himself and engaged the militants at extremely close range. During the exchange, he killed two terrorists before being shot through the abdomen at point-blank range. The wound caused severe spinal damage and left him critically injured. Even so, he continued fighting and killed another militant.
Though the injury would eventually leave him permanently paralysed below the waist, he did not withdraw. The battle continued for several hours as troops worked to secure the structure and rescue the hostages. Amid intense pain, he remained composed enough to keep directing the operation and reportedly even administered intravenous fluids to himself.
All 14 captive women were eventually brought out safely through a kitchen window. By the end of the encounter, nine militants had been neutralised, and security forces had recovered a substantial quantity of weapons, ammunition and explosives.
For his conspicuous bravery, leadership and refusal to abandon the mission after suffering grievous injuries, Razdan was awarded the Kirti Chakra in 1996. The decoration, India’s second-highest peacetime gallantry award, recognised an action that remains one of the most striking episodes of counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir.
A second career after catastrophic injury
The injuries he sustained in the 1994 operation changed his life permanently. He underwent multiple surgeries and spent nearly a year in treatment and rehabilitation. The damage to his spine deprived him of the use of his lower body, and he remained dependent on a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
For many officers, such a wound would have ended meaningful military service. For Razdan, it marked the beginning of a different but equally demanding phase of his Army career. Despite paraplegia, persistent neural pain and the daily physical burden imposed by his injuries, he continued in uniform and took on important staff and institutional assignments.
His professional ability, operational understanding and intellectual approach ensured that he remained relevant to higher defence planning. Rather than allowing his disability to define the limits of his service, he continued to advance on the strength of his competence and record.
In October 2010, he reached a historic milestone when he was promoted to Major General, becoming the first wheelchair-bound officer in the Indian Army to attain two-star rank. The promotion was a landmark in the service’s history and a rare example of an officer overcoming severe battlefield disability to continue rising through the hierarchy.
As a Major General, Razdan served as Assistant Chief of the Integrated Defence Staff. In that role, he contributed to areas including joint warfare, operations, logistics and broader institutional military thinking. He was also associated with higher defence organisations and the Centre for Joint Warfare Studies, reflecting his continuing role in the development of military thought and jointness within the armed forces.
He was also awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for distinguished service, recognition of a career that extended far beyond a single act of gallantry.
Family, philosophy and life after retirement
Those who knew Razdan often spoke of his mental toughness and his refusal to invite sympathy because of his physical condition. He consistently argued, through both example and personal interactions, that the mind could prevail over physical limitation. He encouraged others to see adversity not as a dead end, but as a challenge that demanded adaptability and resolve.
He frequently acknowledged the role of his family in that journey, especially his wife Manju, whom he credited as a major source of strength through years of rehabilitation and continued service after his injury.
The couple has two sons. Ishan carried forward the family’s military tradition by joining the Parachute Regiment and serving with 23 Para, becoming a fourth-generation Army officer. Their other son, Paarth, pursued medicine and completed his MBBS.
Even after retirement, Maj Gen Razdan remained closely connected to the military world. Through interviews, podcasts and conversations with officers, veterans and defence aspirants, he continued to speak on leadership, military service, Kashmir, counter-insurgency operations and the importance of resilience in adversity.
His life came to be seen by many in the airborne fraternity as a powerful expression of the Parachute Regiment’s ethos: “Men apart, every man an emperor.” He had entered combat as a physically formidable Paratrooper, suffered grievous wounds that permanently altered his body, and still continued until he wore the rank of Major General.
Maj Gen Sunil Kumar Razdan leaves behind a legacy built on two intertwined achievements: the courage he displayed in battle during the 1994 rescue operation in South Kashmir, and the determination with which he continued to serve the Army despite permanent disability. Together, those chapters made him one of the most inspiring figures of his generation in uniform.
For soldiers, veterans and defence aspirants, his career remains a reminder that duty can outlast injury, and that courage is measured not only in combat but also in the refusal to yield to circumstance.
