Bhairon Singh Rathore Age, Death, Family, Biography & More

Bio/Wiki
Profession	Retired BSF Personnel
Famous for	• Participating in the Battle of Longewala • Being portrayed in the 1997 Bollywood film Border by Suniel Shetty
Military Career
Service/Branch	Border Security Force (BSF)
Rank	Naik
Service Years	1963-1987
Awards	Sena Medal by the Indian government (1972)
Personal Life
Date of Birth	Year, 1941
Birthplace	Solankiya Tala village, Shergarh district, Princely State of Jodhpur, British India (now Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India)
Date of Death	19 December 2022
Place of Death	AIIMS, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Age (at the time of death)	81 Years
Death Cause	Brain stroke [1]India Today
Nationality	• British Indian (1941-1947) • Indian (1947-2022)
Hometown	Solankiya Tala village, Shergarh district, Jodhpur, Rajasthan
Religion	Hinduism [2]NDTV
Caste	Rajput
Relationships & More
Marital Status (at the time of death)	Widower
Marriage Date	Year, 1973
Family
Wife/Spouse	Prem Kanwar (deceased)
Children	Son- 1 Sawai Singh Daughter- 1
Money Factor
Pension	Rs 12,500 (as of December 2020) [3]News18 Hindi
Assets/Properties	He owned approximately 15.6 acres of agricultural land [4]News18 Hindi

Some Lesser Known Facts About Bhairon Singh Rathore

• Bhairon Singh Rathore was a retired Naik of the Border Security force who took part in the defence of Longewala during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War. In 1997, Suniel Shetty portrayed him in a Bollywood film titled Border.

• Bhairon Singh enlisted in the BSF as a constable in 1963.

• By 1971, he had become a Lance Naik and was posted in the Delta Company of the BSF’s 14th Battalion’s 3rd platoon in the Longewala sector in Rajasthan.

• Before the beginning of the 1971 war, the 14th Battalion at Longewala was replaced by the Alpha Company of the 23rd Battalion of the Punjab Regiment, which was under Major Kuldip Singh Chandpuri’s command. Bhairon, however, was attached to the army’s Alpha company because of his deep knowledge of the terrain of Longewala. There, he started undertaking regular patrols alongside the Punjab Regiment. On the night of 4 December 1971, the post at Longewala came under attack from a Pakistani brigade consisting of tanks and infantry troops. According to his gallantry award citation, when a soldier of the Punjab Regiment, manning the Light Machine Gun (LMG) was killed in action, Bhairon immediately took control of the LMG and fought from the LMG picquet until dawn. The battle ended when the Indian Air Force (IAF) jets bombed the Pakistani tanks on 5 December 1971 morning. The citation of Bhairon Singh reads,
  

  When one of the 23 Punjab boys was killed in action, Lance Naik Bhairon Singh took his light machine gun and inflicted heavy casualties on the advancing enemy. It was only their courage and sheer determination to do or die that won the day and Lance Naik Bhairon Singh became a great source of inspiration to his other comrades on the post.”

  

  A photo of soldiers posted at Longewala during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War

• Bhairon Singh continued his service after the end of the 1971 war and retired from the BSF with the rank of a Naik in 1987.

• Bhairon Singh died after he suffered from a brain stroke on 19 December 2022 at AIIMS, Jodhpur. Sawai Singh told the media that Bhairon Singh was admitted to the hospital after a paralytic attack on 14 December 2022. Following his death, Home Minister Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Suniel Shetty, and many more personalities tweeted and offered their condolences to Bhairon’s family. ^[5]India Today
  

  Soldiers from BSF carrying the portrait of Bhairon Singh

• When asked about his thoughts on the 1997 film Border, Bhairon Singh told the media that he was unhappy with how he was portrayed in the film. He said that the film had many factually incorrect scenes. Bhairon Singh told the media that the scene in which Suniel Shetty rushes into a burning building to save the holy Quran was correct.
  

  A picture of Suniel Shetty as Bhairon Singh in the 1997 film Border

• Bhairon Singh, at the age of 80, used to practice Yoga every day early in the morning.