by Shiv Aroor
SHIV AROOR and RAHUL SINGH
INDIA’S MOST FEARLESS 2
More Military Stories of Unimaginable Courage and Sacrifice
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
Forewords
Introduction
Prologue
1. ‘Killed, Maybe, but Never Caught’
Major Mohit Sharma
2. ‘He Avenged Them, Didn’t He?’
Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala
3. ‘Fire when You Can See Their Faces’
Lieutenant Navdeep Singh
4. ‘I’ve Been Ready since the Day I Was Born’
Major David Manlun
5. ‘Get to the Upper Decks, Don’t Come Back’
Lieutenant Commander Kapish Muwal and Lieutenant Manoranjan Kumar
6. ‘There Are More Terrorists Inside, Sir!’
Captain Pawan Kumar
7. ‘I Rust when I Rest’
Major Satish Dahiya
8. ‘Climb over Me, Get to the Submarine!’
Lieutenant Commander Firdaus Mogal
9. ‘Just Tell Me when to Begin, Sir’
Captain Pradeep Shoury Arya
10. ‘What’s Higher than Saving Someone’s Life?’
Captain P. Rajkumar
11. ‘Half of My Face Was in My Hands’
Major Rishi Rajalekshmy
12. ‘I Repeat! Fire in My Cockpit!’
Squadron Leader Ajit Bhaskar Vasane
13. ‘Not a Sound until They Enter the Kill Zone’
Major Preetam Singh Kunwar
14. ‘You Cannot Sustain Fear of Death’
Flight Lieutenant Gunadnya Ramesh Kharche
Footnotes
Prologue
1. ‘Killed, Maybe, but Never Caught’
3. ‘Fire when You Can See Their Faces’
4. ‘I’ve Been Ready since the Day I Was Born’
5. ‘Get to the Upper Decks, Don’t Come Back’
9. ‘Just Tell Me when to Begin, Sir’
10. ‘What’s Higher than Saving Someone’s Life?’
11. ‘Half of My Face Was in My Hands’
12. ‘I Repeat! Fire in My Cockpit!’
13. ‘Not a Sound until They Enter the Kill Zone’
Acknowledgements
Follow Penguin
Copyright
EBURY PRESS
INDIA’S MOST FEARLESS 2
Shiv Aroor is an editor and anchor with India Today television, with experience of over a decade covering the Indian military. He has reported from conflict zones that include Kashmir, India’s North-east, Sri Lanka and Libya. For the latter, he won two awards for war reporting. As a political reporter on TV, he was also recently awarded for his coverage of the 2018 state elections in his home state, Karnataka. Aroor also runs the popular award-winning military news and analysis site, Livefist, on which he frequently tells the stories of India’s military heroes.
Rahul Singh has covered defence and military affairs at the Hindustan Times for over a decade, in a career spanning twenty years. Apart from extensive and deep reporting from the world of the Indian military, including several newsbreaks that have set the national news agenda over the years, Singh has reported from conflict zones including Kashmir, the North-east and war-torn Congo.
Praise for India’s Most Fearless 1
‘If our nation is to be stronger, the stories of these heroes must spread far, wide and never be forgotten.’—General Bipin Rawat, Chief of the Army Staff
‘India’s new generation will find it impossible to forget these riveting military tales.’—Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa, Chief of the Air Staff
‘Inspirational accounts of extraordinary courage, fearlessness and heroism of our valiant soldiers under extreme adversity—a must-read.’—Admiral Sunil Lanba, Chief of the Naval Staff
Forewords
‘Either I will come back after hoisting the tricolour, or I will come back wrapped in it, but I will be back for sure.’
—Captain Vikram Batra, Param Vir Chakra
These immortal words of one of India’s bravest warriors encapsulate the spirit of the Indian Armed Forces. Our fine men and women epitomize the highest standards of honour, courage and commitment. They meet the myriad challenges of our volatile security environment with an unflinching sense of purpose, fully prepared to make any sacrifice required to protect the nation.
Over the last four decades, there have been innumerable acts of valour by our men and women from the three services. Many a times, in challenging situations at sea, one has seen extraordinary feats being performed to overcome seemingly insurmountable odds. Similarly, stories about the heroic acts by our soldiers and air warriors, against the enemy and in protection of the citizenry, abound. These chronicles are an affirmation of the strength of our ethos, conviction and resolve.
This sequel to India’s Most Fearless offers the reader a poignant insight into a few such instances. The willingness and confidence of the individuals to surmount all fear and push the limits of the possible, described in each of these stories in the book, will leave an indelible mark. The stories about our heroic submariners give a unique insight into the obscure, hostile and unforgiving realm in which these silent warriors operate.
Readers will undoubtedly gain a deeper understanding of the culture of our forces, as well as an appreciation of the sacrifices made in the defence of the nation. In this day of incessant ‘Breaking News’ and short-lived societal memory, accounts such as these serve to rekindle our memory of those who made enormous sacrifices for India’s security and our tomorrow . . . ‘lest we forget’.
Our heroes, through their sacrifices and bravery, have continued to strengthen the very foundations of our great nation. By remembering them, we ensure that their example continues to guide us in all walks of life.
Jai Hind.
Admiral Sunil Lanba
PVSM, AVSM, ADC
Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, and Chief of the Naval Staff
‘Always do everything you ask of those you command.’
—General George S. Patton, Jr
3 June 1999 seems like yesterday to me. I remember taking off from Srinagar with my Flight Commander in a pair of MiG-21 jets, soaring over the Drass-Kargil heights and dropping 250 kg bombs on Tiger Hill. Our squadron had moved from Punjab to the Kashmir Valley a fortnight earlier to help hunt down and destroy the enemy intruder positions.
Being deployed for war was a dream. As difficult and dangerous it was, this was what my squadron and I had trained tirelessly for. What could be more fulfilling than to be called upon to do what you had joined the Indian Air Force for?
Those few weeks threw up some of India’s best known and most beloved heroes. Men whose actions have deservedly won them a valuable price in public memory. But as I have always held, India has never needed a full-scale war or conflict for its heroes to step up. In a country that faces threats from across the spectrum, the demand for courage and gallantry remains high. History is rife with acts of courage and valour by the three services.
Air power and employment of the Air Force is frequently seen as an indisputable act of hostility in a conflict. The nature of military aviation and the many other roles of the Indian Air Force mean that our men and women are uninterruptedly in difficult and demanding lines of duty. From a fighter cockpit that’s on fire, to a transport plane headed to a dangerously small airfield high up on a mountain, from daring helicopter rescues during floods to the extensive ground operations that occupy thousands of our ranks, it does not stop.
In India’s Most Fearless 2 , you will gain insight into the story of an air warrior, amongst others, in a role that you would not normally asso
ciate with the Indian Air Force as you know it: Anti-Terror Operations. The other accounts, equally, must occupy us with questions not only about the will to survive and the skill of our three services, but also about what it takes to make peace with one’s own likely demise, if in the bargain many more lives are saved.
My compliments to the authors for the sequel, for very aptly highlighting the valour of our heroes once again.
Jai Hind.
Air Chief Marshal B.S. Dhanoa
PVSM, AVSM, YSM, VM, ADC
Chief of the Air Staff
The wide readership of the first book, India’s Most Fearless , has been a source of great satisfaction to the Army fraternity. The book undoubtedly brings to light the bravery against all odds of a few of the ‘heroes’ of Indian Army, amongst many such stories of unparalleled guts, glory and courage.
The book and its popularity is an affirmation that despite many distractions in our modern and hyper-connected society, millions are still interested in the stories of our men and women in uniform. The soldiers keep themselves professionally abreast and ensure that they are available for the ‘call of duty’ at all times to uphold the sovereignty and integrity of our great nation.
Our men and women in uniform have never let the nation down in the highest traditions of the Armed Forces. After having seen the entire spectrum of challenges in which Indian Army soldiers operate, I can say with conviction that we will continue to put the nation first, always and every time.
We are grateful to the citizens of our nation who continue to acknowledge the bravery and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform in any manner they can, through messages, cards, letters, social media or even standing ovations at public places. We are sanguine of the continued support of our countrymen in the times to come.
Compliments to the authors for having continued with the sequel to highlight the actions of our ‘heroes’.
Jai Hind.
General Bipin Rawat
PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, YSM, SM, VSM, ADC
Chief of the Army Staff
Introduction
At 2.45 p.m. on 11 January 2019, just as we had finished writing much of this book, an improvised explosive device (IED) was remotely detonated at the LoC in Nowshera, north of Jammu, an area infamous for Pakistani ceasefire violations and infiltration attempts. Two Indian Army personnel on patrol were instantly killed in the explosion, believed to be the work of a hybrid infiltration unit comprising Pakistan Army commandos and terrorists, better known as the Border Action Team (BAT).
The soldier killed in the blast was Rifleman Jiwan Gurung, twenty-four years old and at the start of his life. The officer, Major Sashidharan Vijay Nair, wasn’t much older—thirty-three. For a few days after the incident, their deaths would merely add to the familiar statistics of mortality from that part of the country. But within four days, by 15 January, journalists would discover a numbing back story that would push the deceased Major into the news headlines.
The back story would radiate from a young figure in a wheelchair first seen at the Pune war memorial and later at the city’s Vaikunth cremation ground. Maj. Sashidharan had met and fallen in love with Trupti six years ago. Only months into their engagement, Trupti was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system that manifests itself with progressively intensifying symptoms that can be managed but never cured. On the threshold of marriage, friends and family are said to have advised Maj. Sashidharan—then twenty-seven—to reconsider his future. Friends say that even Trupti told her fiancé she would understand if he were to break off the engagement and move on with his life.
Maj. Sashidharan would hear none of it. Trupti and he were married a few weeks later. Months after the wedding, Trupti suffered another serious health setback that rendered her paralysed from the waist down, permanently consigning her to a wheelchair. The young officer would devote himself to Trupti, ensuring that they never missed out on the army life he had signed up for. Days before his death, while on leave in Pune, he had calmed a worried Trupti about being deployed at the LoC.
In life as in death, said a news report about him.
But would Maj. Sashidharan be more than a flag-draped casket on the inside pages of a newspaper had it not been for these details about his personal life? What if they had never been discovered? What about the soldier, young Rifleman Gurung, who died with him? Does he too have a crushing back story that burnishes his heroism? Is such a back story even necessary to amplify the heroism of those who put their lives on the line as a matter of daily routine? These aren’t loaded black-and-white questions, but ones we have continuously grappled with through the writing of this book, the second in the India’s Most Fearless series.
A month after the explosion that killed Maj. Sashidharan and Rifleman Gurung, on 14 February, an election-bound India was shatteringly interrupted by a suicide vehicle attack on a convoy of the CRPF in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama. For a country that has become inured to periodic Pakistan-sponsored terrorist attacks, there was an immediate and unmissable ‘enough is enough’ air. Few could tell quite why this attack had proven so uniquely numbing—India had suffered bloodier attacks at Pakistan’s hands before. Was it the terrifying nature of the attack? Was it a country that had already raised the bar on punitive responses with its strikes inside PoK in 2016? Did looming elections play a role as critics would later allege? Whatever it was, twelve days later, India would cross a new red line with a historic air attack on a terror facility of the JeM inside Pakistan.
The Balakot operation has already attained mythical status even as India and Pakistan fight an uninterrupted stream of claims and counterclaims. While that has always been the nature of the beast between the two countries, the operation itself remains classified in India, with the barest of details ever emerging officially. And that means there is a good chance that the names of over a dozen of those fighter pilots who were assigned the historic and enormously dangerous task of flying into Pakistani airspace in darkness, will never be known with certainty. The prologue to this book carries an account of the Balakot air strikes based on conversations with many of those involved, but who cannot be named. From radar operators, mission support pilots and planners, their work will linger, possibly forever, in the shadows.
Like them, there are hundreds on land, in the air and at sea, who cannot be named because of the nature of their feats.
In the course of writing India’s Most Fearless 1 and 2, if there’s one unshakeable truth that we have come upon, it is this: if you look hard enough, every soldier has a shattering back story. But, like in the case of Maj. Sashidharan, does it take their deaths for such stories to bubble to the surface? Jim Morrison of The Doors may have been right when he said:
Death makes angels of us all
And gives us wings
Where we had shoulders
Smooth as raven’s claws.
(‘A Feast of Friends’, The Doors)
But it is equally true that the stories of our soldiers are there to be told if only someone were willing to ask. As in the first book of this series, many of the heroes in India’s Most Fearless 2 are no longer alive. But as you will hopefully discover as you turn the pages, death was only a final flourish in lives lived with constant heroism.
What this journey started out as was two guys who’ve spent their entire careers as journalists listening to stories of military valour deciding it was time to begin documenting them. Not out of any lofty sense of responsibility, but simply because these are stupendous stories that everyone needs to hear. Since the first India’s Most Fearless was published in 2017, a common response we receive from readers is, thanks for the inspiration. Any thanks, we always tell them, is due only to the heroes, their comrades and their families. We haven’t for a moment chosen to tell these stories with the intention to inspire. We have done so because they were amazing stories for us personally. If inspiration is the inevitable effect of these stories, then thanks is due only to the men we’ve written about.<
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The book you hold in your hands takes forward the legacy we didn’t imagine would take so powerful a root when the first India’s Most Fearless was released in 2017. Neither of us fathomed that stories of military heroes would be read by so many people in so many languages and with a thirst for more. The book you are (hopefully) about to read is the result of thousands of messages from readers urging us to write about more heroes and their amazing feats.
When we announced this book early in 2019, one reader sent us a message saying, ‘The India’s Most Fearless series can never end, because India will never run out of heroes.’ This is the truth, but a disturbing one. It has never escaped our minds for a moment that it is India’s uniquely difficult security atmosphere that creates opportunities for military heroism—the Balakot strikes will serve as a numbing reminder to a generation of Indians that wasn’t born when India and Pakistan last locked horns in Kargil. And in many ways, it does mean there will be a steady flow of acts of courage from our frontlines and disturbed areas. But not for a moment is India’s Most Fearless a romanticization of conflict. If there’s one thing we’ve learnt in telling these stories, it is the silent and humble trust of every soldier that India will not send them into combat unless absolutely necessary. That their heroism comes at an enormous premium. And that the country would rather its soldiers were safe, than forced into a situation where they have to decide between life and death.
MiG-29K
While the stories in this book seek to keep the spotlight on individual heroism, it doesn’t exclude the many hard questions that must rightly be asked about military operations. Questions of leadership and decision-making, of tactics and training, of spirit and initiative, all of which have a bearing on why the heroes needed to face their ultimate dilemma in the first place. Let no one tell you that these questions don’t bear asking. If there’s one thing our military heroes deserve, it is an unending stream of questions about the circumstances surrounding their operations. The stories that follow answer some of these questions and raise some more. But through them all, as you will see, the core of courage stands unshaken.