It was 11 November 1974. I was in the Tamenglong district of Manipur. The insurgency in the state had reached its peak. Around 2 am that night, my telephone rang. It was a call from my Battalion Headquarters about a kilometer away. I was told to wait for the Commanding Officer’s briefing. Soon, he was on the line.
On the basis of information about movement of insurgents, he instructed me to raid a hideout in a village about three kilometers away in the Old Tamenglong town.I was a Deputy Superintendent of Police who commanded a Company of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). Soon we set out for the village, taking care not to make any noise. If the stray dogs see us and start barking, the insurgents would know that we are approaching.
As we neared the village, I directed two platoons (35 men in each) each led by a Sub-Inspector to head to their ambush points where they were to take positions.Their task was to take on any insurgent who may attempt to escape through those points once my team and I start raiding the hideout. Along with one platoon, I headed towards the hideout.
By 5 am, we tactically ascended towards the sprawling village on the ridge. While we were surrounding the hideout on the periphery, a hail of bullets shattered the silence of the dawn.
When I moved closer to a wall of boulders to have a better look of the hideout, I was confronted by an insurgent pointing his Chinese automatic rifle at me.
No sooner I turned towards him, he let out a burst of rounds from his rifle. While I engaged him in firing, a volley of rounds from the hideout felled me.
I was hit in both legs. I rolled over and positioned myself behind a boulder, and then, directed my men to lob grenades into the hideout. A few grenades exploded inside the hideout and the firing abruptly ceased. In the mop up operation that followed, we recovered a dead body and arrested five insurgents.
Though it was a successful operation, for years thereafter, I kept brooding if I could have captured the few others who managed to escape our dragnet. I still do, but not as often. Yeh dilmaange more.
M P NATHANAEL
Email: paulnathanael@hotmail.com