Major Satish Dahiya was born on 22 Sep 1985 and hailed from Narnaul in Mahendragarh district of Haryana. Maj Dahiya completed his schooling from Uttar Pradesh and pursued higher studies from Rajasthan University. He did not belong to a military family but always yearned to be a part of one. Hence, he joined the army in 2008 and was commissioned into the Army Service Corps, the logistic supply arm of Indian Army.  After serving with his corps for a couple of years Maj Dahiya was deputed to serve with 30 RR battalion deployed in J & K area. While serving with 30 Rashtriya Rifles unit, Maj Dahiya participated in many counterinsurgency operations. He was a soldier at heart and an officer par excellence, who believed in leading from the front in an operation like a true military leader.

Right from the time militancy engulfed the otherwise peaceful state of Jammu and Kashmir in the early Nineties, Kupwara, being a border district in Kashmir valley, had been the worst affected. And it is strongly believed that due to the false notion of being alienated by the state, the Kashmiri youth, to some extent, have covertly been assisting the militants exported by Pakistan. Every Rashtriya Rifles battalion has an Army Service Corps (ASC) officer posted on its war establishment who not only looks after the supply and logistics of the battalion, but also forms part of the fighting element of the battalion. Major Satish Dahiya, an ASC officer, was one such braveheart who, before laying down his life, exhibited the stuff he was made of. For his unmatched gallantry and supreme sacrifice fighting the militants, Major Satish Dahiya was posthumously awarded the Shaurya Chakra.

Battle account of bravery in War Diary of 30 Rashtriya Rifle reads…

“On February 14, 2017, Major Satish Dahiya of 30 Rashtriya Rifles was in charge of Cordon and Search Operation in Hajan village in Kupwara district. The village is located close to Hafruda and Rajbar forest, where the terrorists usually hide before proceeding to Baramulla or Sopore in North Kashmir. At about 5.30 pm, while he was placing the cordon at the identified site, the terrorists opened indiscriminate firing from close range. Major Dahiya and his party retaliated with accurate fire in which three terrorists were killed and the remaining fled downhill towards a nullah. Major Dahiya, unmindful of his personal safety, chased the fleeing militants and killed one more but he too was injured in his right thigh. Oblivious of his injury, he kept chasing the fleeing militants and killed one more but this time he was hit in the abdomen by a militant’s fire from close range and fell unconscious. The remaining militants, by then, had escaped in the thick jungle. Immediately, Major Dahiya, in an unconscious state, was put in an ambulance for evacuation to the battalion headquarters at village Langait where a helicopter awaited to evacuate the officer to Base Hospital, Srinagar. When the ambulance was a few kilometres short of the helipad, a mob gheraoed it and started pelting stones and did not let it move forward for almost half an hour till an armoured ambulance reach the site and dispersed the mob. Major Dahiya, though unconscious, was breathing when the ambulance reached the helipad but the officer breathed his last while being put in the helicopter. Maj Satish Dahiya is survived by his wife Smt Sujata Dahiya and daughter Priya.  For their third wedding anniversary, Major Satish Dahiya had sent his wife Sujata gifts. A cake and candles, flowers, which reached her after he died. Sujata Dahiya, 27, held the gifts her husband sent close as she told NDTV, “It reached me after he died. He left a greeting for me which read, ‘I love you Poocha, you are my inspiration’, Satish.” Fighting back tears Sujata Dahiya said she is immensely proud of her husband.