There were heavy casualities on Indian side during an attack on Chabutura hill in Northern Kashmir, in the first half of 1948.

Havildar Fateh Singh was ordered by his commanding officer to help those of the wounded who were lying in the open, to safety. When the havildar moved out of cover, a bullet hit him in the hand.He threw himself down and lay there for a while. When he began to move forward again another bullet hit him in the arm. Again he lay immobile. After an hour he got up and dashed towards the wounded soldiers, bullet whizzing past him from all sides.

Seeing a number of Pakistani soldiers coming up the hill in search of weapons, he hurled hand grenades at them and drove them back.

Then though one of his arms was numbed with pain and he was bleeding profusely from his wounds, he helped four wounded Indian soldiers to safety and retrieved a number of weapons from the dead.

He was awarded the Mahavir Chakra for conspicious gallantry.