LWTR Karam Singh

LWTR Karam Singh hailed from Naruana village in the Bathinda district of Punjab and was born in the year 1947. Son of Shri Jagger Singh and Smt Chand Kaur, he had three brothers (Ajmer Singh, Mahinder Singh, Avtar Singh) and three sisters (Ajmer Kaur, Amarjit Kaur, Malkit Kaur) as his siblings.  After completing his schooling at Khalsa school Bathinda, he joined the Indian Navy soon after in 1966 at the age of 18 years. After serving for nearly three years, he got married to Ms Sukhdev Kaur from Ludana Pilibanga village in Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan and the couple was blessed with a son Jaswinder Singh.

Indo-Pak War Naval Operations: INS Khukri – 09 Dec 1971

During Dec 1971 LWTR Karam Singh was serving aboard INS Khukri. When the Indo-Pak War of 1971 broke out, the anti-submarine frigates of the Navy, INS Khukri and INS Kirpan were given the responsibility of hunting and neutralizing enemy submarines in the North Arabian Sea. The Indian Naval radio detection equipment identified a submarine in the vicinity of Diu harbour on 03rd Dec 1971.  Following this, INS Khukri along with two other ships INS Kirpan and INS Kuthar were dispatched to take on the threat of the enemy submarine.

In the late evening of 9^th December, INS Khukri was attacked by the Pakistani submarine PNS Hangor which fired torpedoes at it, causing devastating damage. The Captain of the ship, Capt Mulla evaluated the situation within minutes and issued orders for its abandonment. There were two massive explosions inside the Khukri and the ship went dark. It lost all power and began to tilt steeply to its right (Starboard) as chaos followed the order of ‘abandon ship’. Within a short span of time,  the ship was hit by another torpedo. As the damage to the ship was extensive, a large number of officers and sailors did not get adequate time to follow the orders of their captain. Eventually, the ship went down along with 18 officers and 176 sailors. LWTR Karam Singh was one of the brave hearts who laid down his life at the age of 24 years in the line of his duty. LWTR Karam Singh was a valiant soldier and committed sailor, who made the supreme sacrifice following the highest traditions of the Indian Navy.

LWTR Karam Singh is survived by his wife Smt Sukhdev Kaur, son Shri Jaswinder Singh and nephews Shri Jagjit Singh & Shri Hardeep Singh.

• The school at Naruana village in Bhatinda district of Punjab has been named after LWTR Karam Singh as "Shaheed Karam Singh Senior Secondary School" in his honour.
• A 4 km road in Punjab has been named after him as "Shaheed Karam Singh Marg" in his memory.
• A book in Punjabi based on his life has been written by Shri Kabh Singh Sandhu and is titled, " Jindgi Nama Shaheed Karam Singh".