Daily Current Affairs Quiz 2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\nVarthaman was held captive by Pakistan after his Mig-21 went\ndown across the LoC on 27 February, following the Pulwama suicide attack this\nyear. He was later handed over to India at the Wagah-Attari border on 1 March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, the IAF\u2019s woman Squadron Leader Minty\nAgarwal was awarded the Yudh Sewa Medal for her role as a fighter controller\nduring the very same mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the surgical strike in 2016, the Balakot air\nstrike was seen as one of India\u2019s biggest strikes following the Pulwama suicide\nblast on 14 February, which killed 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)\nsoldiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) claimed responsibility for the attack, Indian fighter jets launched an attack \u2013 two weeks hence on 26 February \u2013 during which the IAF jets breached the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir and targeted the JeM camps in Balakot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vir Chakra<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Vir Chakra is an Indian gallantry award presented for acts\nof bravery on the battlefield. It replaced the British Distinguished Service\nCross, Military Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross. Award of the decoration\ncarries with it the right to use Vr.C. as a postnominal abbreviation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman and five other Indian Air Force (IAF) pilots who spearheaded the Balakot operation. With tensions having flared along the Line of Control (LC) after Pakistan red-flagged India\u2019s move to scrap the special status for Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370, and the positioning of Pakistan\u2019s fighter jets along Skardu near Ladakh, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":4844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[92],"class_list":["post-4843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs-articles","tag-awards-prizes-current-affairs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4843"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4845,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4843\/revisions\/4845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gkseries.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}