An article i would like to share with you guys:-
The Rambo of Indian Army
NEW DELHI: They are the invincible lot. Major Sudhir Kumar and his
comrades of the Special Forces are the Indian Army's `Rambos' who flirt
with death every day. Their forte is to hunt down foreign mercenaries in
the remote fastness of the mountains of Kashmir.
``Nobody can touch me. My life line is strong, my luck line is strong,''
the young major would declare to friends. And so it seemed for eight
long years and countless operations where the special forces hunted the
hunters who have spread terror in the Valley.
But then, Major Kumar's luck ran out. On August 29, the Major was dead.
He was just 31.
Kumar had led his team of SF men deep into the Afruda forest in Kupwara
district of Jammu and Kashmir. Moving at night, as they usually did, the
SF caught some 25 militants unawares in their camp. The SF team ploughed
through the camp with Sudhir Kumar in the lead. He killed nine militants
even though he was injured early on in the firefight. But later, despite
medical care, he died.
``Nobody could expect this guy to go like this,'' says a friend with a
sense of disbelief. For a man with just 11 years in the Army, Major
Kumar already had 10 medals - including two Sena medals for gallantry, a
wound medal and operation medals - adorning his chest.
The irony was that Major Kumar did not have to be where he was. After a
stint in the Valley he was in a cushy job as the security ADC to the
Army Chief Ved Malik in New Delhi. But when the Kargil affair blew up,
he could not resist the call to arms and requested his boss permission
to return to his unit. In Kargil, the SF was, as usual, thrown in for
the toughest tasks and took heavy casualties. Kumar was part of several
operations. He was recommended for yet another gallantry award for his
role in the capture of the Zulu top in Kargil where 25 Pakistani
soldiers were killed.
``He always led from the front,'' says a friend of his in the Army. In
an earlier operation at Trimukha in Kupwara district in 1996, Major
Kumar and his men had killed 14 militants, reaching their hideout after
walking through the night in driving rain. The reason for his success at
targeting militants? ``I can think like them...I'm a crook.''
And yet, those who knew him describe him as a ``cool, calm, low-key
person with a desire to learn...to know everything''. ``Not only was he
fearless, he was a good strategist too,'' recalls a friend. He had
topped a special intelligence course in the US and received an honorary
colonel's certificate from the governor of Alabama.
An avid reader, linguist, skydiver, skilled in radio
communication,...there were so many facets to this son of a junior
commissioned officer who belonged to Banuri village, near Palampur in
Himachal Pradesh.
Major Kumar was a man who as a little boy aspired to be a wrestler until
his mother decided to enrol him in the Sainik School at Sujanpur Tira. A
man who aspired to take his mother around in a car and bought one so he
could do so. ``A man who has done his bit for the nation,'' says a
friend.
The Rambo of Indian Army - Sujanians.org
I was just kidding.
Not me buddy. I never said Naga. Regarding SF my statement was : I don't know who these soldiers are, but you can easily determine if a soldier is in SF because there are few symbols indicating it but those symbols are not visible in the pics.
