6 Pakistanis were among 117 UN peacekeepers to receive the UN Medals of Courage on Thursday for sacrificing their lives for the cause of peace.
Five of the six - Tahir Ikram, Tahir Mehmood, Mohammed Naeem, Adil Jan and Mohammed Shafiq - belonged to the armed forces, while the sixth, Ibrar Syed, was a civilian.
Secretary-General António Guterres laid a wreath at UN headquarters in honor of the nearly 4,200 UN peacekeepers who have lost their lives since 1948.
He later led a ceremony where the Dag Hammarskjöld Medal of Courage was posthumously awarded to 117 military, police and peacekeepers, including six Pakistanis who lost their lives while serving under the UN flag in 2021.
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Captain Abdelrazakh Hamit Bahar of Chad was posthumously awarded the Captain Mbaye Diagne Medal of Extraordinary Courage. Major Winnet Zaharare of Zimbabwe received the Military Gender Advocate of the Year award and was named a Gender Equality Advocate. Pakistan has been one of the longest-serving and largest contributors to UN peacekeeping for decades.
Since Pakistan became a member of the UN on September 30, 1947, Pakistan has participated in 70 UN peacekeeping missions around the world. Pakistan's armed forces are the third largest contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, after India and Ethiopia.
"We are committed to helping the vulnerable communities affected by conflict, and we will continue to adapt to the changing environment and the need for peacekeeping operations," said Pakistani Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram.
Ambassador Akram paid tribute to the victims of the six Pakistanis who died in 2021 and said: "We share the grief of their families and will never forget those heroes who gained respect and recognition for their homeland.
" The UN Secretary-General recalled that more than a million women and men had served as UN peacekeepers since 1948. "We are reminded of an old truth: Peace is never given. Peace is the price," he said.
