New Delhi, Sep 6 (IANS): As part of celebrating the year 2019 as 'Year of The Next of Kin', Army Chief General Bipin Rawat met the brother of Param Vir Chakra Captain Gurbachan Singh Salaria in Pathankot, Punjab on Friday.

General Rawat interacted with the war hero's brother, his sister, his nephew and his son-in-law. Rawat was accompanied by the GOC 9 Corps of the Indian Army.

Rawat conveyed the gratitude of Indian Army and the nation to the kin and close relatives of the war hero Salaria. Captain Salaria was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his exceptional bravery in the line of duty during his tenure with his unit Third Battalion, the First Gorkha Rifles, as a peacekeeper in the United Nations operations in Congo in 1961.

On December 5, 1961, Captain Salaria attained martyrdom during a combat with gendarmes to remove a road blockade on route to the Elizabethville Airport.

Captain Salaria is the first Indian commissioned officer and is the only UN peacekeeper to have been awarded with India's highest military honour.