From Quaid to Bana

[Jamwal's]

Profiles of two JAK LI men who helped capture a Pakistani post in India’s final quest for Siachen
TSI | Issue Dated: November 30, -0001, New Delhi
Tags : JAK LI | Naib Subedar Bana Singh | Siachen | Param Vir Chakra | Operation Rajiv | Naib Subedar Chuni Lal |

I



the icy heights of Siachen in 1987 that a young JAK LI soldier, Bana Singh, achieved what till then was considered unimaginable. He was part of the 8 JAK LI’s Special Operations Group (SOG) completing its glacier tenure.

To launch an assault in oxygen-depleted rarefied air is considered near suicidal but the Quaid post – situated at an altitude of 21,153 feet - was strategically important to observe nearly 80 km of territory around it. It gave Pakistanis, its then occupants, an edge of not just preventing supplies to other Indian posts but also of interdicting any movement with precise firing.

Its capture, therefore, became important for the Indian Army. Naib Subedar Bana Singh, hand-picked for this challenging assignment, led the last attack along with riflemen Chunni Lal, Laxman Das, Om Raj and Kashmir Chand. A force of 62 people participated to the final operation; two officers, three JCO’s and 57 jawans.

Remembers Bana Singh, "we were losing friends every day, some of them just a few days after their induction into the force. Our Commanding Officer and all of us were determined to throw the Pakistanis out, whatever the price.’’Two decades after his inspired heroism in those chilling heights, Subedar Major (Honorary Captain) Bana Singh, Param Vir Chakra (PVC), has sent his son to defend the frontiers in Kashmir.

Born in 1949 in Kadyal district of Jammu, Bana Singh was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the highest wartime gallantry medal in India, for conspicuous bravery and leadership under most adverse conditions.

“Operation Rajiv” as this operation was named, resulted in various awards: one Maha Vir Chakra (for Subedar Sansar Singh), seven Vir Chakras and one Sena Medal, besides the PVC. Bana Singh later declined an offer of Rs 25 lakh, 25 acres of land and a pension of Rs 15, 000 a month if he decided to settle in Punjab. Singh’s belief: as a proud soldier of Jammu and Kashmir, he could not leave the state, no matter how strong the allurement.

The other hero of the party that took Quaid was late Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, winner of Ashok Chakra, Vir Chakra and the Sena Medal.

Chuni Lal was born in Doda’s Bhadarwah tehsil in 1968. He joined JAK LI in 1984. Within three years of his service he earned a Sena Medal for his death-defying act in capturing Bana Post alongside the legendary Bana.
Not the one to sit on his laurels, in 1999 while serving with his unit in the Poonch Sector during ‘Operation Rakshak’ he and his unit were instrumental in beating back an attempted intrusion by the Pakistan Army and for this act of gallantry he was awarded the Vir Chakra.

Chuni Lal died in a fierce firefight with militants in Kupwara district on June 25, 2007. ``He was short but his courage exemplary,'' remembers Bana of his comrade. In true tradition, Bana's son Rajinder Singh and Chuni's son Manveer Singh too have joined JAK LI. Perfectly understandable.



http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/from-quaid-to-bana/7/47831/


___________________________________________________________

With Lt. Col Ranveer Singh Jamwal - who scaled Mt Everest
thrice, in Jammu.

 

[NKVD]

Capturing of Quaid Was the biggest Slap on face of the SSG and its might

SSG lost over 100 men till 1998 in Saltaro ridge to capture it

 

[Jamwal's]

Capturing of Quaid Was the biggest Slap on face of the SSG and its might

SSG lost over 100 men till 1998 in Saltaro ridge to capture it

The last MILITARY action in Siachen occurred in 1999.

Bilal post now known as Cheema Post (27 th Rajput)

https://defence.pk/threads/the-capt...ost-pt-5770-by-rajput-regt-in-siachen.434023/

 

[GoR]

Other day, I watched Documentry on this. Salute to the Courage of Naib Subedar Bana Singh and others who captured Quaid Post.

 

[fitpOsitive]

Profiles of two JAK LI men who helped capture a Pakistani post in India’s final quest for Siachen
TSI | Issue Dated: November 30, -0001, New Delhi
Tags : JAK LI | Naib Subedar Bana Singh | Siachen | Param Vir Chakra | Operation Rajiv | Naib Subedar Chuni Lal |

I



the icy heights of Siachen in 1987 that a young JAK LI soldier, Bana Singh, achieved what till then was considered unimaginable. He was part of the 8 JAK LI’s Special Operations Group (SOG) completing its glacier tenure.

To launch an assault in oxygen-depleted rarefied air is considered near suicidal but the Quaid post – situated at an altitude of 21,153 feet - was strategically important to observe nearly 80 km of territory around it. It gave Pakistanis, its then occupants, an edge of not just preventing supplies to other Indian posts but also of interdicting any movement with precise firing.

Its capture, therefore, became important for the Indian Army. Naib Subedar Bana Singh, hand-picked for this challenging assignment, led the last attack along with riflemen Chunni Lal, Laxman Das, Om Raj and Kashmir Chand. A force of 62 people participated to the final operation; two officers, three JCO’s and 57 jawans.

Remembers Bana Singh, "we were losing friends every day, some of them just a few days after their induction into the force. Our Commanding Officer and all of us were determined to throw the Pakistanis out, whatever the price.’’Two decades after his inspired heroism in those chilling heights, Subedar Major (Honorary Captain) Bana Singh, Param Vir Chakra (PVC), has sent his son to defend the frontiers in Kashmir.

Born in 1949 in Kadyal district of Jammu, Bana Singh was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the highest wartime gallantry medal in India, for conspicuous bravery and leadership under most adverse conditions.

“Operation Rajiv” as this operation was named, resulted in various awards: one Maha Vir Chakra (for Subedar Sansar Singh), seven Vir Chakras and one Sena Medal, besides the PVC. Bana Singh later declined an offer of Rs 25 lakh, 25 acres of land and a pension of Rs 15, 000 a month if he decided to settle in Punjab. Singh’s belief: as a proud soldier of Jammu and Kashmir, he could not leave the state, no matter how strong the allurement.

The other hero of the party that took Quaid was late Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, winner of Ashok Chakra, Vir Chakra and the Sena Medal.

Chuni Lal was born in Doda’s Bhadarwah tehsil in 1968. He joined JAK LI in 1984. Within three years of his service he earned a Sena Medal for his death-defying act in capturing Bana Post alongside the legendary Bana.
Not the one to sit on his laurels, in 1999 while serving with his unit in the Poonch Sector during ‘Operation Rakshak’ he and his unit were instrumental in beating back an attempted intrusion by the Pakistan Army and for this act of gallantry he was awarded the Vir Chakra.

Chuni Lal died in a fierce firefight with militants in Kupwara district on June 25, 2007. ``He was short but his courage exemplary,'' remembers Bana of his comrade. In true tradition, Bana's son Rajinder Singh and Chuni's son Manveer Singh too have joined JAK LI. Perfectly understandable.



http://www.thesundayindian.com/en/story/from-quaid-to-bana/7/47831/


___________________________________________________________

With Lt. Col Ranveer Singh Jamwal - who scaled Mt Everest
thrice, in Jammu.



View attachment 328582

Any learned reply from Pakistani side?

 

[Areesh]

Looks like another one of those feel good threads with which @third eye would have no problem.

Capturing of Quaid Was the biggest Slap on face of the SSG and its might

Yeah big slap. With not even a single bullet left to fight back. I can see the slap.

Move on kid. Go drink your milk.

 

[Jamwal's]

This is the only way to reach Qaid Post/ Bana Post - an ice fortress surrounded

Brig Varinder singh a Minhas Rajput (then a Major) - he was the coy commander, got Veer Chakra for op Rajeev

JAKli Memorial at Base Camp

_______________________________________________________



Capturing Qaid Post or Bana Top!


How the Quaid was taken
Sujan Dutta
I still remember very vividly the sound of our Koflach boots as we trudged forward on a beaten snow track between Camp II and Camp III. A fairly easy walk, head hung down, each man lost in his own thoughts. My ANPRC 25 (backpack radio set) was on and it would hiss and crackle at regular intervals - nothing exciting on air. Very surprising, I thought, as the paltan (platoon/regiment) had some very accomplished radio operators or should I say radio speakers and in today's parlance they would be known as RJs.

Brigadier Varinder Singh's unfinished handwritten manuscript was meant to be an account of the Indian Army's capture of Pakistan's Quaid Post from Sonam, where one soldier out of 10 survived an avalanche last week.

The brigadier died in 2012 doing what he loved best -playing basketball in a Noida court.


Lance Naik Hanamanthappa Koppad, of 19 Madras, now tenuously hanging on to life at the army's Research and Referral Hospital in New Delhi, was flown down from Sonam. He continues a tradition set nearly 30 years back by Major Varinder Singh and his band of brothers from the 8 JAKLI (Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry).

In June 1987, Varinder Singh was the major who led the company of selected soldiers from his 8 JAKLI battalion up the ice wall from Sonam. Sonam is at 19,600 feet and surrounded by treacherous crevasses.

Their objective was a Pakistani position at more than 21,000 feet - 1,500 feet above. It was of strategic import. From the post named after their Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Pakistani troops had a clear view of the glacier, and an Indian Army battalion headquarters at 16,000 feet.

They could monitor helicopter movement and pick out Indian soldiers and patrols. They could direct artillery fire. In May 1987, they killed nine of 13 Indian soldiers led by Lt Rajiv Pande, who were attempting to do what Maj. Varinder Singh finally succeeded in doing a month later.

The soldiers overran the post and turned the guns, which were aimed at India from the south to the north, to aim at Pakistan.

Subedar (now honorary captain) Bana Singh led the assault, finally killing the six injured Pakistani soldiers with grenades thrown into the shelter in which they were yelling from pain.

Bana Singh was awarded the highest gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra, and is paraded every Republic Day and Army Day as the soldier to be adopted as role model for the Indian Army.

Varinder, the major who rose to be brigadier, was awarded the Vir Chakra for his leadership. The "saddle" in the ridgeline that overlooks Sonam, where the 10 soldiers were buried in the avalanche, is often referred to as "Viru" after him.

"It is such a waste, this war in the mountains," his wife, Anita Singh, says in their house in southwest Delhi. She remembers the telegram from her husband's comrade, Maj. R.K. Singh, through the Snow and Avalanche Study Establishment (SASE) the next day that informed her of his injury.

"Viru OK. Stop. Came down. Stop. Had two drinks. Stop. Now in hospital. Stop. OK," it said.

Anita reached the military hospital at Leh from Srinagar, where she was then living, on the morrow. Varinder recovered after 17 stitches and 15 days in the hospital.

Shrapnel from a Pakistani artillery fire had pierced Varinder's torso and chest when he was leading the operation. Varinder writes in his account of a Subedar Sita Ram, radio operator, who used to describe Pakistani artillery shelling in words like " Ravan ke dus laddoo gire, char airburst aur baki ground-burst. (Ten laddoos from Ravan have fallen, four were airbursts and the others hit the ground)."

After Pakistan lost the Quaid Post, they brought down heavy artillery on what used to be their own position to evict the Indians.

"What happened was ironical," recalls Anita. "Because it is so cold up there, the blood around his wounds coagulated quickly and stopped him from haemorrhaging".

Subedar (honorary Lieutenant) Girdhari Lal, who was in "Viru's" team and now helps Anita run her business, recalls that the officer came down the hill using his right hand to staunch the wound and stop the bleeding.

Writing in The Telegraph on Wednesday, Lt Gen. Syed Ata Hasnain, former commanding officer of Indian troops of the Northern Siachen Glacier, estimates that the country spends about Rs 5 crore of taxpayers' money to keep Operation Meghdoot running daily. Gen. Hasnain retired as military secretary in the Army Headquarters. Few would have more in-depth knowledge of the costs of military operations.

This does not take into account wages and allowances. One former financial officer in the defence ministry estimates that New Delhi spends up to Rs 1,500 crore a month to sustain troops on the Siachen Glacier.

This includes fuel to keep helicopters flying, transportation, specialised garments and equipment, food, medicines, oxygen cylinders, Hapo (high altitude pulmonary oedema, that is the commonest ailment up there) bags that are sometimes used to turn milk into curd, boots, snow scooters and weather forecasting machines. For every battalion posted up there, there are three in training to acclimatise for the cold and the altitudes.

File picture of Varinder Singh in Siachen

The real costs, however, take the heaviest toll in the minds and bodies of the men and the women through personal physical presence at those heights or through emotional bonds, like Anita's.

Those bonds are so strong that they sustain after death. Yesterday evening, in her flat, Subedar Girdhari Lal and former Subedar Major (honorary Lieutenant) Onkar Chand Bakshi were there to share her story with this newspaper.

The former junior commissioned officers (JCOs) were two of Maj. Varinder Singh's handpicked and trusted soldiers for the assault to capture the Quaid Post.

"We all wrote our last letters and carried them in our pockets at the time of the assault," says Bakshi. "So did Sahab". Major Varinder Singh had instructed his men to write their last letters in case they did not survive. He wrote one to Anita too.

"I wanted to read it but he tore it and threw it away," she laughs now. "'No point,' he said, 'because I'm still living, in case you haven't noticed'."

The 8 JAKLI troops were training for the operation since March of that year. Three attempts had failed. But Rajiv Pande's men had managed to drive pitons on the cliff up to 10 metres short of the saddle.

Viru OK. Stop. Came down. Stop. Had two drinks. Stop. Now in hospital. Stop. OK
A telegram from Maj. R.K. Singh, informing Anita of her husband
Maj. Varinder Singh’s injury
The rope was passed through karabiners (coupling links) all the way down to the base just behind the Sonam post. It still took the men two days to find the rope that was buried after snow blizzards. They hoisted themselves to the saddle in two nights and then Varinder and his men fought their way along the knife-edged ridge to take out the Pakistani post.

Girdhari Lal recalls that something actually went wrong. The initial plan was to go around the Quaid Post and take out its base camp that sustained the Pakistani men at the top. But the plan was changed, probably because the Pakistanis got wind of it, and it was decided to go for the Quaid Post straightaway.

The Quaid Post was targeted by Indian artillery fire from Sonam and another position behind it. The shelling had to be stopped for the men to clamber over.

"Our beards and moustaches had gone white from the snow. And the snow had gone black from the shelling and the firing," says Girdhari.

Since the Indian soldiers under Varinder were to get into Pakistani-controlled territory, they were told to ensure that no one was captured alive.

" Humlog LTTE walon ki tarah cyanide capsules leke gaye the," says Bakshi. The orders were to commit suicide if there was the possibility of capture.

Anita listens to the account in stoic silence. The understanding that her husband was ready to die like a guerrilla has been with her for years. But she did not know then.

Beautifully written in a slanting hand, in his never-to-be-finished manuscript, Varinder recalls the orders: "It was late evening when I reached and went straight to the Commanding Officer's hut. Late Col A.P. Rai, UYSM, was in the throes of a head massage but it was not difficult to see a mix of remorse, anger and revenge on his face. A man of few words but he always conveyed his point implicitly. He came to the point right away - Quaid had to be captured and 'revenge' to be taken. The Gorkha and a Rai at that, had taken his decision though the generals conveyed it to us much later... I for one know I was going to lead the attack - there was no doubt in my mind."

Varinder, a fifth-generation army officer, actually started rehearsing the assault at Sonam, at the base of the Pakistani post. Two soldiers were killed in the rehearsals, probably going down into crevasses. The bodies were not found.

Despite the training, Sepoy Jasbir Singh rolled down from the knife-edged ridge on the night of June 24 to the Pakistani side. He was probably shell-shocked from the firing by an Indian post, says Bakshi. "I brought him up on my shoulder," he recalls.

"While we were going up to Quaid, we saw the bodies of five soldiers from the aborted attempt a month back," says Girdhari. The cold and the snow preserve bodies well.

Alpha company, that Varinder led, climbed from the head of the rope to the saddle, trusting their crampons (metal plates with spikes fixed to the boots) on a sheer 10-metre ice wall. The basketballer showed the men how to do it. For three days, they had little to eat or drink.

"Sahab had given a strict order," says Girdhari Lal. "No one was to go down (to Sonam). There were no bunkers. We burrowed in the snow. Our minds were wandering," he says. "They used to hallucinate a lot," says Anita.

"We used to ask one another's names just to check that the brain is functioning. This happened to us earlier too. Once when I was trekking to Bela (another post), I lost my way in a barfila toofan (snow blizzard). We just had to wait it out. Then on another occasion, Rifleman Balwan Singh went from our tent to the cookhouse in an igloo to get food. He did not return," says the honorary lieutenant.

At the saddle, Varinder and his men burnt camphor to heat their rifles. The rifles, mostly clunky old 7.62 SLRs at the time, would often not fire because the triggers jammed in the cold.

At 4.30 in the morning of June 26, 1987, the men crawled out of the saddle to link with an advance party of four that included Subedar Bana Singh.

The rest is history.

Since then the Indians have not been able to come down. The Pakistanis have not been able to go up. And a lance naik in the Research and Referral hospital battles for life after being given up for dead.

Any learned reply from Pakistani side?

Ask from Pakistani Side.

 

[Areesh]

Ask from Pakistani Side.

It has been discussed like a hundred times on this forum.

I don't think anyone would be interested in discussing it again just because you felt an urge to get an ego boost.

 

[NKVD]

Looks like another one of those feel good threads with which @third eye would have no problem.



Yeah big slap. With not even a single bullet left to fight back. I can see the slap.

Move on kid. Go drink your milk.

Don't Blame Me It you MilitaRY Commanders who said So

http://tribune.com.pk/story/368394/the-fight-for-siachen/

No Don't Ruin the thread Shoo...

 

[Jamwal's]

It has been discussed like a hundred times on this forum.

I don't think anyone would be interested in discussing it again just because you felt an urge to get an ego boost.

Hundreds of things got discussed on daily basis here so what ?

Secondly, i never seen or post on Bana singh in detail, maybe you did or discussed it many times since you have 20,000 ~ posts.

 

[Areesh]

Don't Blame Me It you MilitaRY Commanders who said So

http://tribune.com.pk/story/368394/the-fight-for-siachen/

No Don't Ruin the thread Shoo...

So your answer to my post about Bana post is an article about Siachen war.

Grow up kid.

Hundreds of things got discussed on daily basis here so what ?

Secondly, i never seen or post on Bana singh in detail, maybe you did or discussed it many times since you have 20,000 ~ posts.

There are dozens of threads on this operation. You wanted to feel good so you started another.

Anyways. @DESERT FIGHTER do you want to add anything to this thread. The kids from India want to discuss it again as part of their feel good campaign.

 

[Jamwal's]

Anyways. @DESERT FIGHTER do you want to add anything to this thread. The kids from India want to discuss it again as part of their feel good campaign.

Stop whining, nobody ask here or tag others to discuss anything, only posted few details and images which was never posted before, like the JAK li memorial.

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

So your answer to my post about Bana post is an article about Siachen war.

Grow up kid.



There are dozens of threads on this operation. You wanted to feel good so you started another.

Anyways. @DESERT FIGHTER do you want to add anything to this thread. The kids from India want to discuss it again as part of their feel good campaign.

Yeah useless to comment on these hilarious bollywoodish stories.

 

[NKVD]

Yeah useless to comment on these hilarious bollywoodish stories.

Listen to bollywood stories by the retired SSG brigadier
http://tribune.com.pk/story/368394/the-fight-for-siachen/

So your answer to my post about Bana post is an article about Siachen war.

Grow up kid.

Grandma Im not new to this forum

Its laughable its coming from you Who Except trolling has nothing Substantial to add in PDF In Technical Level

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

Listen to bollywood stories by the retired SSG brigadier
http://tribune.com.pk/story/368394/the-fight-for-siachen/

And do read what he says... cyou clown.