Meet the CRPF jawan who rescued 3 year-old in Sopore encounter

By Ankur Sharma
New Delhi [India], July 1 : The heart-wrenching photograph of a CRPF Jawan rescuing a toddler from getting hit by bullets after terrorists opened fire at a patrol party in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla district on Wednesday has gone viral on social media.
The CRPF jawan, who rescued the three-year-old child from terrorists is Pawan Kumar Choubey, a hard trained CoBRA Commando of CRPF who has been involved in multiple operations in Jammu and Kashmir since 2016.
The young jawan joined the force in 2010 and after dealing with Naxals he was transferred to Jammu and Kashmir to tackle terrorism in 2016.
Pawan Kumar hails from Varanasi and is from the 179 battalion which came under attack this morning.
"Prior to serving in Jammu and Kashmir, he was in 203 CoBRA battalion of CRPF which is an anti-Naxal battalion specially raised to deal with Naxalism. He performed there very well and later got transferred to another conflict zone Jammu and Kashmir. He is serving in Sapore since 2016 and have involved in various operations and other duties," a senior CRPF official said.
When terrorists started firing from a mosque, Pawan Kumar saw the child sitting on his grandfather's body. He went closer to him took cover and beckoned him to advance towards him. The toddler walked towards Pawan and later he was whisked away from the encounter spot by security forces.
This is not the first time that terrorists have targeted children and civilian in Jammu and Kashmir.
On June 26, a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawan and a five-year boy were killed by terrorists after they attacked security forces in Bijbehara.
Later, in an encounter in Bijbehara, two terrorists who killed a CPRF jawan and the kid eliminated by the security forces.