2 Valley youth win ICCW National Bravery awards

JAMMU: Two youths from Kashmir, one who rescued his family from a burning house and the other who made a valiant effort to save a man who caught fire after he was hit by crashed Mi-17 helicopter debris, are among those chosen for the ICCW National Bravery Awards this year.
The names of the awardees -- 10 girls and 12 boys -- were announced by the Indian Council for Child Welfare (ICCW) on Tuesday at a press conference today.
Kupwara native Sartaj Mohidin Mugal, 16, and Mudasir Ashraf, 19, from Budgam are among the awardees for performing acts of valour in Kashmir in 2019.
"I was on the first floor of my home in Tumina village of Kupwara in October last year, when a shell fired by adversaries hit my house on the first floor and as a result my room was filled with smoke. I immediately jumped from the first floor, and then rushed to the ground floor where my parents and two sisters were," Mugal said.
"I picked my sister Sadia, 8, in my hands and Sania, 13, held my hands, while my parents ran out of the room, before the damaged house collapsed," he told.
Mugal has been selected for the ICCW Shravan Award.
Ashraf, from Budgam, had rushed to help people after a Mi-17 helicopter had crashed in a village there.
"The helicopter debris had hit a villager, who caught fire. I tried to douse flames by putting soil on him, but in vain. Help arrived later, but the man could not be saved. I tried very hard," he said.
Sixteen-year-old Muhammed Muhsin from Kozhikode in Kerala, who drowned while saving three of his friends in the rough sea in April last year, has been chosen for the ICCW Abhimanyu Award posthumously, the officials said.
ICCW, an NGO, has been organising these awards since 1957, and has awarded 1,004 children -- 703 boys and 301 girls -- till last year.
However, in January 2019, sources had said that the central government had undertaken its own selection process for national children's awards and dissociated itself from the Bravery Awards given by the Council.