Pune, 15th July 2021: After fighting a long battle, Major General Rajpal Punia is now ready to tell a true story behind the Indian Army’s most successful mission as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces. ‘Operation Khukri’, this book is based on the personal experience of an Indian military peacekeeper.
In 1999, Major Rajpal Punia (now Maj Gen) was posted in a place called Tangdhar along the Line of Control (LOC) in Jammu and Kashmir for over three years. He had tasted the fragrance of shells blown towards his company by the Pakistani posts. It was 3 years of cross LOC firing, 3 years of separation from family, and 3 years of learning the value of life.
Major Punia returned to a peaceful location at Babina, hoping to spend the next couple of years with his wife and children. But he wasn’t the driver of his life, God had other plans. The first day in the office at Babina, he got the news of him been detailed as part of a United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Sierra Leone, West Africa. Sierra Leone or the hub of diamond mines had long been the victim of a rebel movement called the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) whose intentions were dubious and their approach barbaric.
Sierra Leone appeared to be in the clutches of endless consternation with over 50,000 deaths; millions of people dislodged, gruesome crimes inflicted on women, children, and others, including ravishment, arson, mutilation, and mass murder. After a decade of civil war and innumerable failed attempts by varied African forces trying to curtail the monstrosity of the Revolutionary United Front, finally, the Peace Agreement was signed. As per the agreement, the RUF agreed to surrender to a neutral force of the United Nations.
5/8 Gorkha Rifles, along with a 14 Mechanised Infantry company commanded by Major Punia was selected for this Mission. Tumultuous events transformed a peaceful mission into a warlike standoff between Major Punia’s company and the Revolutionary United Front rebels in Kailahaun. Refusing to surrender, to be stripped of their weapons and uniform, the soldiers paid a heavy price. Major Punia, who had been made a hostage, managed to get back to his company where he, along with 233 Indian Soldiers was cordoned by the rebel forces with no food to eat.
3 months of impasse, 3 months of failed diplomacy, and 3 months of uncertainty drove Major Punia to orchestrate OPERATION KHUKRI on the 15th of July 2000. The blazing rocket launchers pierced through the Kailahaun town, where they were surrounded, the 70km prolonged jungle warfare through the dense thicket, surviving the ambush of the RUF twice and to date 233 standing tall. Operation Khukri was one of the most successful operations of the Indian Army as part of the United Nations.
The Indian Soldiers were cordoned for three months without food. They had not spoken home. There was no news about anybody’s family, and yet the josh [zeal] was high, like always. There is some magic in the camouflage uniform; it’s like the swirly patterns of patriotism stitched with the thread of courage and immense love for their motherland.
The soldiers patiently waited for three long months for diplomacy to prevail at the higher level, and an amicable solution be proposed to put an end to the standoff. The standoff between the Indian Peacekeepers and the RUF rebels was mainly over laying down weapons. Unlike peacekeepers of other nations, Indians had refused to lay down arms as they not only worshipped their guns but also refused to be stripped off the dignity of a soldier.
This book is special not only for a daughter but also for every citizen of India as it was one of the most successful missions of the Indian Army in the blue beret of the United Nations. It is truly unfortunate that people are not aware of the operation that transpired after a year of the Kargil War, an operation where every olive green soldier chose death over cowardice, dignity over food, and honour over freedom.
The Indian soldiers fought both mentally and physically on alien soil, against an unknown enemy, a war not for territory or peaks but a war so that the Tricolor could flutter with pride on the millions of peaks in India. It is gripping non-fiction that would surely bind you with moments of pride, sorrow, and laughter. It is a nerve wreaking story of Love, Love for family, and Love for the country. It is a story of a dilemma, of a tough choice between the life of Indian Army Soldiers or the Innocent Civilians of Kailahun. It is a story of valour, honour, pride, and yet regret.
A regret that didn’t let a man sleep for over 15 years. A regret that was diminished in the year 2017 when he was cordoning the Dera supporters; he felt their pulse as he had lived that moment in the past. He attempted to wash off the red stains of the lives of innocent civilians he took in the Operation on alien soil. The stains have surely bleached but, would they disappear in this lifetime.