Operation Sindoor casualties named on the National War Memorial Roll of Honour

Six Operation Sindoor casualties were named on the Roll of Honour section of the National War Memorial website on Friday, the first time the government has formally disclosed the identities of personnel who died during the May 2025 operation.

The six named

Five of the fallen are from the Indian Army. They are Subedar Major Pawan Kumar of Headquarters 10 Infantry Brigade, Rifleman Sunil Kumar, Vir Chakra, of 4 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar of 5 Field Regiment, Aviation Technician Mood Muralinaik of 851 Light Regiment, and Havildar Sunil Kumar Singh of 237 Field Workshop Company.

The sixth, Sergeant Surendra Kumar, Vayu Medal, of 39 Wing, served with the Indian Air Force.

First official confirmation

Until Friday the government had not officially named anyone killed during the operation, even as reports and speculation about military losses ran through the four-day India Pakistan confrontation of May 2025. The Operation Sindoor casualties listed on the Roll of Honour now stand as the first official confirmation of the armed forces personnel who lost their lives.

Operation Sindoor and the Pahalgam attack

Operation Sindoor began in the early hours of May 7, 2025, weeks after the April 22 terror attack at Pahalgam that killed 26 civilians, most of them tourists. Indian forces struck nine terror linked sites across Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir, hitting infrastructure tied to Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba.

India and Pakistan agreed to halt military action on May 10, after the two sides' Directors General of Military Operations spoke.

The disclosure lands during a period of transition for the Army, which is preparing a change of command and whose role was reviewed this week by the Standing Committee on Defence. Field formations have kept a heavy schedule through the year, among them a recent Army and ITBP exercise in Arunachal Pradesh.

Names bound for the Tyag Chakra

The six names will also be inscribed on the Tyag Chakra, the Circle of Sacrifice, at the National War Memorial in Delhi. They were released alongside the full list of soldiers martyred across military operations in 2025.

What the Circle of Sacrifice records

The Tyag Chakra is built from 16 circular granite walls. The name, rank and unit of every soldier who has made the supreme sacrifice since Independence is cut into the bricks of those walls.

It commemorates military personnel killed in combat since Independence.