Sepoy Anusuya Prasad, was born on 19th May 1953, in the village of Nanna, Chamoli, in present day Uttarakhand. Son of Shri Dayanand and Smt Ukha Devi, Sep Anusuya Prasad was enrolled in 10 Mahar on 19th May 1971. Sepoy Ansuya Prasad  despite being a young soldier of his regiment played an active role during the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

Operation Cactus Lily: 1971

During the 1971 war, for liberation of Bangladesh, the Mahar Regiment was given the task of capturing an enemy position, a tea factory at Chatlapur on the Eastern Front, which was a well-fortified building dominated by machine guns around the entire area. The plan of action, under Commanding officer, Major Gen K V Krishna Rao, was to send a squad to get into the enemy defences and set the building on fire.

Sepoy Ansuya Prasad, with utter disregard for his personal safety, volunteered for the task and crawled towards the enemy position, holding a few phosphorous grenades. During the process, he was shot in both his legs but undaunted, he continued crawling up towards the stock of ammunition in the building. Thereafter, he received a machine gun burst in his shoulder, and still undeterred, though bleeding profusely, he crawled up to the building and lobbed the grenades into it, setting it on fire before succumbing to his wounds and was martyred, that too when he was just 18 years old. His exceptional bravery forced the enemy to abandon the building and enabled the troops to capture the objective and subsequently, the two Pak Brigades which were defending the town, surrendered on 17 December, ’71. The daredevil action of Sep Anusuya Prasad changed the course of battle and ensured a decisive victory for Indian forces. In this action Sepoy Ansuya Prasad displayed conspicuous gallantry and made the supreme sacrifice.

Sepoy Ansuya Prasad, with just 11 days of service with the Battalion, displayed outstanding courage with utter disregard to his personal safety. His heroism and sacrifice have become part of the Mahar Regimental history. Sep Anusuya Prasad was awarded nation’s second highest award for gallantry, Maha Vir Chakra for making the supreme sacrifice, and became the youngest recipient of the award.

A parade ground at Sagar in Madhya Pradesh has been named after Sepoy Anusuya Prasad.  A statue of the brave soldier has been installed in front of the unit, that is today famous as Anusuya Prasad Battalion in honor of the exceptional courage shown by the martyred soldier.

Sep Anusuya Prasad is survived by his wife Chitra Devi. “I was merely around 13 when I got married. I remember that my husband (Sepoy Prasad) had come down during a break from the training for collecting some documents — that is when we got married. Five days and he went back for training and went straight to the battlefield. What I received was a telegram, saying my husband was dead. I could not even read the telegram, forget understanding the severity of it,” said Chitra Devi who, in March 1963 went to Delhi to receive the MVC by then President V V Giri.

In 2002, I started an organisation called Veer Shaheed Anusuya Prasad (MVC) Mahila Samiti in Bhauwala, Dehradun, working for women empowerment. “Now, there are just two things I want to do — empower other women and visit the place where my husband fought bravely, for which I need a passport,” she has said.