32-year-old Indian Army Lance Naik Dinesh Kumar from Haryana's Palwal district of Mohammadpur village was martyred in heavy cross-border shelling by the Pakistan Army along Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch sector in the Line of Control (LoC) on May 7, 2025. The shelling occurred as a reaction after India's 'Operation Sindoor', the cross-border counter-terror raids by the Indian Army against terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for the Pahalgam terror attack.
Dinesh Kumar, who was recently promoted to Lance Naik and was with the 5 Field Regiment, was on patrol with four other personnel when he was killed by mortar fire. He leaves behind his wife Seema, an advocate who is pregnant, and a son and a daughter. Dinesh was the eldest of five brothers, two of whom are also serving as Agniveers in the Army.
His sacrifice has been universally lamented, with tributes rolling in from the Army, local leaders, and the country as a whole.
The Indian Army's White Knight Corps saluted his ultimate sacrifice and stood in solidarity with all the victims of the targeted killings of civilians in the Poonch sector.
