(2/2) ” I have served in anti-insurgency operations in Punjab, Kashmir Valley, and Assam. While in Assam, my favorite company, Bravo, was deployed on a sluice on river Suklai. The Army was deployed all over the state to contain insurgency. Weeks passed by without any worthwhile action and my boys had started complaining of a ‘clear lack of action.’ I kept them busy in firing practice as well as regular patrols. But truth be told, even I had become very apprehensive of our own inaction, not that we were not trying but the sun just did not shine well on my outfit. One day, I suddenly had an idea. I told my men about it and they supported my proposal – based on impulse, we will just catapult in the direction our sixth sense guided us, no advance planning, no elaborate preparations. Maintain element of surprise and keep the men on the edge.
On a particular day, I felt the need to go out south of our company location. I gathered nine handpicked boys, slung our AK 47s around our shoulders, rode our rickety bicycles and set forth due south. We rode fast and traveled a great distance but came across nothing. We started pedaling back to the camp, a tad dejected, going empty-handed once again. Lost in my thoughts, I saw a civilian coming from the opposite direction on a bicycle. He suddenly slowed down, made eye contact and muttered, “Don’t look back, some militants are moving behind you on bicycles in your direction.”
I asked my boys to continue cycling without showing any unusual movement so as not to alert the following group and listen to directions being issued. We were to slow down to enable the group to close the gap, swing left abruptly, forming an extended line on the embankment, throw off cycles and fire on order from me. We started executing and the firing began. There were a total of five of them and each one of them immediately disappeared behind a clump of trees in the fields. We threw our bicycles off and chased them, firing while on the move. I radioed our base to send in reinforcements. While running four of them had jumped in the river while one entered the wilderness. I sent five of my men towards the river and I with four of my men ran towards the lone militant. The chase suddenly opened into a village. The militant had disguised himself as a villager. We cautiously entered the village and rounded up all able-bodied men in an open patch for identification. As we were in the process of doing that we saw two middle-aged men and a young boy sawing a log nearby. The boy was short, stout and muscular. We ordered them to join immediately and forming an extended line, began our proceedings. I walked slowly in front of them and kept my hand on their chest. As I reached that boy I could see he avoided looking any of us in the eyes. I simply placed the back of my right hand on his chest – his heart was pounding like a hammer hitting steel. I slapped him across his face, he tumbled backwards in fear, but I pulled him forward from his arm and segregated him. No other suspect could be identified. The identification parade was over in 15 minutes time. We found out that the person we had caught was a high-ranking person of a major militant outfit. The search continued till it fell dark and the following items were recovered from around the area: 1 x 9 mm Chinese Star Pistol., 2 x Pistol magazine, 15 x 9 mm rounds, incriminating documents including the Organization’s letterhead pad, 1 x Walkman and clothes
That was one of my best tenures, caught a terrorist by feeling his heartbeat. ”
Served the country for 21 years