A first-hand account of some of the little-known details of the Indian Army’s peacekeeping mission in the jungles of Africa, ‘Operation Khukri’, will be released on July 15 by author Major General Rajpal Punia. The book published by Penguin Random House India (PRHI) is the story of the Indian Army’s successful rescue operation of over 200 peacekeepers who were sent by the United Nations to Sierra Leone to assist the government there in battling the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), a rebel group. On July 13, the operation will mark its 21st anniversary.
Major General Punia and his daughter, Damini Punia co-wrote the book. Punia, then the Commanding Officer (CO) of the 58th Gorkha Rifles, orchestrated the operation, survived an ambush by the RUF twice and returned with all 233 soldiers. Punia, who was awarded the Yudh Seva Medal in 2002, said that the book ‘Operation Khukri’ symbolized his responsibility to the soldiers he led into battle in a far-away land against an unknown enemy.
‘It will give you a glimpse into how a soldier’s life unfolds, how children long for their fathers, and how 233 soldiers faced death without food for close to three months and ultimately chose to die fighting rather than hungry,’ he concluded. The Indian Army deployed two companies to Kailahun in 2000 as part of the UN’s peacekeeping mission in Sierra Leone, which had been ravaged by years of civil war.
The mission soon turned into a standoff between Punia’s company and the RUF rebels in Kailahun, with the Indian peacekeepers isolated without supplies for 75 days. By laying down their weapons, the RUF told them, they would be able to return home. The book is indeed restructured from Punia’s memories and an ‘attempt to highlight the courage and valor of every soldier wearing the olive-green uniform in India’.
Read more: Tamil Nadu government extends formal invitation for Kitex Group to invest in state
She writes in the introduction, ‘It is truly unfortunate that people are not aware of an operation that took place a year after the Kargil War, an operation in which soldiers chose death over cowardice, dignity over two meals, and honour over freedom’. The book, a first attempt by a father-daughter team, is dedicated to Havildar Krishan Kumar, recipient of the Sena Medal (posthumously), the only hero India lost in the operation.
Post Your Comments