GUWAHATI: Back in 1991, the Assam Rifles had eliminated 72 militants in a single counter-insurgency operation in Jammu & Kashmir and the force on Monday felicitated the surviving heroes.
During a recent trip to Nepal, Assam Rifles Director-General Lt Gen PC Nair met some of them. They were soldiers of the 7th Battalion who had conducted the famous offensive, “Operation Dudhi”.
"It was an emotional moment as some of these icons reflected on their time as stalwarts of the Assam Rifles as also of Operation Dudhi. The legends of Operation Dudhi and their wives were felicitated on the 31st anniversary of Operation Dudhi in Shillong today," an Assam Rifles spokesman said.
He said the Assam Rifles battalions are well-known for their valour and self-sacrifice but the story of Operation Dudhi is the most inspiring. It will remain etched in the annals of Assam Rifles’ history.
The operation, undertaken by the battalion during its tenure in Jammu & Kashmir from 1990 to 1992, remains the most successful counter-insurgency operation conducted by any security force to date. Not only the battalion had eliminated 72 militants but it also apprehended 13 others in that operation.
Conducted on May 3, 1991, Operation Dudhi was undertaken by a column comprising a Junior Commissioned Officer (JCO) and 14 other ranks under the command of Naib Subedar Padam Bahadur Chhetri. The column had moved from Battalion Headquarters, Chowkibal, for a routine patrol to check the winter vacated post of Dudhi, with the staging camp established at Bari Baihk. Located about 13 km away from the battalion headquarters, the camp was covered with five to six feet of snow.
The staging camp was established on May 4, 1991, and the track towards Dudhi was cleared the same day. The next day, a column of one JCO and 14 other ranks began moving towards Dudhi post.
"When they were just one kilometre from the post, the militants, who had infiltrated into Indian territory after crossing the 14,000-foot high Eagle Pass, started firing at the column. The column then conducted a recce and discovered over 100 militants," the Assam Rifles said.
Despite being greatly outnumbered, the troops were unfazed. Equipped with only 7.62 mm self-loading rifles and a light machine gun, the soldiers used tact to surround the militants, who were armed with sophisticated weapons and launched a retaliatory attack.
The battle lasted for six hours until reinforcements arrived in the form of three columns with a medical team. In the fierce firefight that continued till the intervening night of May 5 and 6, soldiers Kameshwer Prasad and Ram Kumar Arya laid down their lives while RK Yadav sustained injuries.
The next four days were used to carry out search operations and sanitization of the area. A huge cache of weapons and ammunition was recovered.