Kumari Gurugu Himapriya is being awarded the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, 2022, for her excellence in the field of Bravery.
Kumari Gurugu Himapriya was born on the 25th of January 2009.
She 12-year-old. She lives in Ponnam village of Srikakulam district.
Her immense bravery saved her family when an armed group of terrorists attacked the Sunjuwan military camp in Jammu in February 2018 when she was eight years old. She earlier received the national bravery award-2018 from the Indian Council for Child Welfare for her courage.
According to ICCW’s award description, a terrorist tried to barge into Himapriya’s house when her father was not there. Himapriya and her mother resisted the terrorist. The militant threw a grenade that led to multiple splinter injuries on her left arm. Her mother was also injured and collapsed on the floor.
Himapriya opened the door and stood in the way of the terrorist. She started a conversation with the terrorist and in spite of a gun being put to her head and held hostage, she continued conversing for three to four hours.
Himapriya was residing in an Army residential quarters at Sunjuwan in Jammu and Kashmir along with her father Havaldar Gurugu Satyanarayana, mother Padmavathi, and sisters Rishitha and Avantika, then aged 7 and 5, respectively, when Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists attacked the camp early on February 10, 2018. Satyanarayana was away on duty at Udhampur when the camp was attacked.
Seeing a terrorist entering their quarters, Padmavathi locked herself and her three daughters up in the bedroom and placed whatever she could get against the door. She and Himapriya, then 8, prevented the terrorist from entering the room for more than three hours. The terrorist tried to enter by lobbing a hand grenade which badly injured Padmavathi.
Braving a shoulder injury, Himapriya continued her struggle to keep her mother and sisters safe. She opened the door and engaged in a conversation with the terrorist for about an hour. The resolute girl eventually made the terrorist agree to let her take her injured and unconscious mother to a hospital.
