With just under 3 years of service, in March 1966, while many seniors were available in 13 Kumaon, our Commanding Officer (CO) selected me to take the Advance Party from Gaya to Mizoram. My second in command (2IC) was another youngster, Lt DS Shekhawat (Shekhu), but we had some of the finest Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Non-commissioned Officers (NCOs) in our advance party. This move indeed was a very complex one. While the Advance Party Commander and his deputy were new, our battalion’s job was to relieve 5 Para, which was stationed in Aizawl, the administrative capital of Mizoram and then part of Assam. We were to take over the unit’s weapons and ammunition from the 14 Rajputana Rifles (14 Raj Rif) in Agartala (Tripura), as well as the 18 Punjab’s mechanical transport (MT) from Masimpur (Silchar) in Assam and the railhead to Mizoram and operational role from 5 Para located in Aizawl. Mizoram is a landlocked northeastern region of our country that shares a 722 km long international border (IB) with Myanmar and Bangladesh, while in the north it is surrounded by Manipur, Assam, and Tripura.
Over the next three months, the Advance Party diligently shuttled from our administrative base in Masimpur to Agartala (303 km) via a narrow road, and from Masimpur to Aizawl (175 km) via a semi-metalled road. Despite the frequent landslides and hostile actions on both roads, Tripura remained the most peaceful union territory (UT) during those days while it too lately, sadly got involved in insurgency due to the neglect of tribals by the Bengali-dominated bureaucracy, government, and complex local politics. The battalion arrived at Silchar and moved by road convoy to Agartala, where they were temporarily located in the Bashas in the Leechi Bagan (tropical fruit lychee, pronounced Lee-Chee/Bagan-garden) belonging to the erstwhile Maharaja of Tripura. After a few week’s stay, the nucleus training team under Major (later Brigadier) RV Jatar with Lieut. Chiddi Singh, his deputy, moved to Aizawl for training in the newly established Eastern Command Jungle Warfare School, later upgraded to Counter Insurgency & Jungle Warfare School (CIJWS) at Vairengte in Mizoram, roughly halfway between Silchar and Aizawl. After a few weeks, the battalion moved by transport to Udaipur (Tripura) (50 km) and thereafter marched on foot, tactically covering 300 km in 2 weeks’ time, as in those days there was only a serpentine, hilly, cross-country track connecting Udaipur with Aizawl. These days both Agartala and Aizawl have well-connected national highways (NHs) taking around 6 hours to complete the journey, and Mizoram, with the second highest literacy rate in the country, is a fast-developing state with immense potential in tourism, cottage, agro-tech, and horticulture industries.
Mizoram is a land of rolling hills, valleys, rivers, and lakes, and the average height of the hills to the west of the state is about 1,000 m (3,300 ft), gradually rising up to 1,300 m (4,300 ft) to the east with a few rising to 2,000 (6,600 ft). Phawngpui Tlang (Blue Mountain), situated in the southeastern part of the state, is the highest peak in Mizoram at 2,210 m (7,250 ft). About 76% of the state is covered by thick bamboo forests, 8% is fallow land, and 3% is barren land. The Blue Mountains, known for their diverse flora and fauna, have earned the designation of a National Park. Modern farming techniques are gradually replacing the primitive ‘slash and burn’ or jhum cultivation methods. Due to thick jungles, undulating hills, a wet and colder climate, and a sparse, poor population, Mizoram was the ideal insurgency terrain that also hosts numerous species of birds, wildlife, flora, reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, as well as our story’s main hero, the Asian Black Bear!
Our unit got inducted in Aizawl with an operational role all over Mizoram as the reserve battalion in the thick of the Mizo insurgency spearheaded by Laldenga, who was a Havildar in the Indian Army and later worked as an accounts clerk in the Assam Government. He was alienated by the Assam government’s indifference towards severe famine, and as a leader of the outlawed Mizo National Front (MNF), he led the secessionist war for independence. He took support from Pakistan, taking shelter, training, weapons, money, and moral support from the neighboring erstwhile East Pakistan for the separatist movement, and was arrested and jailed by the Indian authorities several times. The secessionist war lasted for sixteen years till the Mizo Accord was signed in 1986; the MNF became the legitimate local political party and Laldenga the Chief Minister. He died of lung cancer in 1990.
Our modus operandi
We conducted self-contained with heavy loads on our backs to live off the land, long patrolling columns in the wilderness of Mizoram, enduring cold and heavy rains, traversing remote jungles and hills, and dominating the rebels through proactive counter-insurgency (CI) operations. The timing of sub-unit launches for counter-insurgency operations and our return for much-needed rest was unpredictable. Yet, we maintained high morale by optimizing our counter-insurgency operational skills. I remember going for a column on a search and destroy mission with scanty intelligence, poor quarter-inch old printed maps that neither helped in terrain analysis or navigation, poor radio and surface communication, with 10 days rations, heavy loads of arms and ammunition at the end of December, and returning at the end of February of the next year with tattered ragtag uniforms and jungle shoes and yet with high spirits! Many times we would be heli-dropped by choppers in the thick remote jungles with old quarter-inch scale maps, disoriented, not knowing our bearings and where to go for quite some time, as all the hills in the thick landmarks deprived jungles, with no habitation around for miles that looked alike. The constant threat of hostile ambushes or straying into East Pakistan or Burma kept troops, especially the column commanders, on constant alert. We would mostly harbor on hilltops covered with thick rain forests, full of blood-sucking leeches, snakes, and reptiles. The only luxury as a column commander one could enjoy at times was a ground sheet bivouac in the night harbor! Sometimes we tactically camped in a remote village to generate confidence in the locals, discreetly seek real-time intelligence, and make temporary helipads in the village to receive heli-borne logistics support from units and/or evacuate an emergent casualty. Our troops and junior leadership were very well-trained and motivated. It was a matter of pride that while we raided many hostile camps and captured large numbers of arms, ammunition, and hostiles; not even once could hostiles target us. In fact, in addition to conducting search and combing operations, we made sure to win the hearts and minds of the poor locals in the remote, sparsely populated, extremely poverty-stricken villages by dispensing basic medicines that we carried as first aid for our columns.
Shoot Out in Wilderness
Once on very short notice, in the middle of the night, my column was dropped by vehicles at Serchip village in Central Mizoram, 112 km away from Aizawl. Serchip, even in those days, had the highest literacy rate all over India. Its origin came from the word citrus tree top (Ser=citrus, chip=top). Our column was to lie doggo in a village outpost for the rest and in the late evening move towards Baite village. Incidentally, construction work on the jeepable road from Serchhip to Biate was halted when the insurgency flared up in Mizoram, and the only tell-tale signs of that in the village were a burnt-up Willys jeep and a wasted and washed-out narrow mud track that was easy enough for my column to move with speed tactically with heavy loads. After a good 10 hours of marching in the insurgency environment, we reached the village and, as per standard operating procedures (SOPs), cordoned and searched the village for possible hostiles who often in nights sheltered in the interior villages, away from the security forces, to gather intelligence, rest, recoup, and provide logistics support. After clearing the village as per our procedural village searching drills, I always used to first collect the village headman, church priest, teacher(s), ex-government servants, young married ladies without husbands, and ex-servicemen (if any) and discreetly talk to them and gather inputs about hostile activities. One such young woman was Dintheri, in an advanced stage of pregnancy, living in the first house in the north of the village all alone and whose husband was missing. Gurung and I had picked up working knowledge of the Lushai dialect, and I inquired, Dinetheri, nagma pum thao? (Dinetehri, your tummy is enlarged), and she circled her tummy with both hands, with a meek smile replied, Baby! Discreet inquiries revealed that her husband was MNF Misual (insurgent), had a silai (rifle), and was away for a long period in unknown jungles. We lacked trust in her and closely monitored her home, suspecting that her husband might have been regularly visiting her during her advanced stage of pregnancy. Additionally, with the help of the headman, I would gather the gravely sick patients and instruct the nursing assistant to administer first aid to them. Once the preliminary drills were over, the priest and headman let us use the church for shelter in the prevailing inclement weather with the formal request to make it available for Sunday’s mass, if we were to stay that long. We always, as a code of conduct, ensured the sanctity of churches, schools, and residents. Incidentally, Baite Village, even in those days of turmoil, had over a 98% literacy rate and was a well-laid, clean, developed village, which has now grown into a modern town. I was at that time amazed to see a copy of Encyclopaedia Britannica and a few old copies of Reader’s Digest available in the church library that I read during our camping in the village. I was pleased to learn that Baite has been keeping up its standards, and it has been recently declared as the cleanest town in Mizoram and the entire Northeast!
When there is an insurgency, villages that are far away from security posts or pickets are the ones that suffer the most. This is because security forces (SFs) on mobile operations need helpers like translators, guides, and porters. As soon as the SFs leave, the insurgents come in and punish the villagers for helping the SFs, who often called us Vai (foreign) sepoys, which shows how much we were then connected to the northeast region. But once a security post/picket was established in any village, the villagers felt secure, willingly cooperated, divulged real-time intelligence, and even acted as interpreters and guides in neutralizing the insurgents. Since our stay was getting a bit longer to operationally dominate the surrounding routes of infiltration/exfiltration of hostiles from/to Burma, I told the headman and the priest that I would be forwarding my recommendation to establish a permanent post in the Baite village; he and the villagers were mighty pleased and willingly organized bamboo dance for our column. We got inputs from an ex-serviceman of the Assam Rifles that there was a hostile camp towards the IB, and he acted as a guide to lead us to the camp on a pitch-dark night. We dispatched Subedar Phool Singh, a Rezang La warrior who received the Sena Medal, to raid the camp, only to discover it deserted as usual. In the insurgency environment, the insurgents prefix light and sound signals with villagers all over insurgency-prone areas to warn them of the presence of SFs lurking around. It is very rare to see stray dogs in Mizoram, but in Baite village, one such dog (named Champion by me) became part of our column and would always, as our mascot, walk with the leading elements as an unofficial patrol dog.
One fine night the column was ordered to move onto a different counter-insurgency mission in the north towards Champhai all along the international border (IB)with Burma to prevent and squeeze movements of insurgents lurking around the border areas. I, along with 2/Lt Fauda Singh Gurung, my company officer, and leading platoon commander, always moved behind the point section so that I could control any operational situation if ever contact with hostiles was made. Havildar Ram Chander (Platoon Havildar nicknamed Nambardar and one of the few survivors of the Rezang La Battle. He later became Subedar Hony Capt & is often seen on numerous TV channels narrating the famous 1962 Rezang La Battle fought by our battalion), would always move behind the two scouts along with the section commander to keep tight control over the leading platoon on any eventuality and operational necessity along with our new unofficial asset, Mizo canine Champion! We had just moved out of Baite village for an hour, around 0300 hrs in the drizzling night, advancing in the deafening silence of the thick bamboo jungle on a serpentine track; the Mizo dog Champion smelt, heard, or felt the lurking emergency and became alert, paused, and cautiously growled, giving a warning signal about the impending threat. Nambardar was in a fix, and the entire column came to a lurching halt, but the two local Baite boys, acting as our guides and interpreters based on their natural primitive instincts, rushed uphill with their dahs spontaneously, and there was a long burst of fire. My first instinct was that the absconding insurgent husband of Dintheri from Baite village with some MNF elements had ambushed our column! I shouted to Gurung to move his two sections up the hill and charge through the ambush. The remainder of the column took positions astride the track, and some greenhorns among our troops started firing toward the area they faced. Sounds of small arms firing alerted all the villages and Assam Rifles security posts surrounding that area. I, with my radio operator Sepoy Mange Ram, rushed towards Nambardar to ascertain the real-time situation. I heard Nambardar shouting, ‘Stop … stop … Saab apna fire hai’ or words to that effect. Nambardar quickly apprised me that while Lance Naik Ramautar was the leading scout acting as the eyes and ears of the column, Champion’s animal instinct cautioned them about the lurking fear, which, before they could understand, turned out to be a sudden fearful attack by the wild animal that happened to be the wild Asiatic bear pouncing upon Ramautar from uphill bushes. Champion and both Mizo boys with dahs were in close combat with the Asiatic wild bear animal as the wrestling bout between the bear and Ramautar ensued. Nambardar, looking for the right opportunity so as not to hit Ramautar, the dog, and the two Mizo lads, fired a burst from his Sten gun, killing the bear instantly. Despite his severe mauling and profuse bleeding, Ramautar maintained his high spirits. I was seriously concerned about his survival and ordered 2/Lt Gurung to ensure our boys stopped firing, made all weapons safe, did the headcount, and ensured local defense. My radio operator, Lance Naik Mange, was smart enough not to lose any time climbing up the hill and communicated with Battalion Headquarters (Bn Hqs), initially apprising that our column had made contact with the hostiles and firing was on. Soon, the CO was on the radio, and I apprised him of the entire episode and requested the evacuation of Lance/Naik Ramautar by helicopter at the earliest. We selected an open patch near the Baite village for marking an emergency helipad, and Mange transmitted its coordinates to the Bn Hqs by the radio set. Mange kept himself completely busy sending, receiving, and writing messages in the darkness, and soon it was first light. Ramautar was taken in a makeshift stretcher to a makeshift helipad near the village, and we waited for the helicopter to arrive. I realized for the first time how difficult it was to evacuate a single casualty in jungle-borne mountainous terrain devoid of roads, tracks, and vehicles for operational and logistical support! Meanwhile, I saw badly hassled Mange coming to me with a very intriguing scribbled message from him in Hinglish that no one could easily decipher. The CO had desired that the marauding Asiatic black bear’s body be sent as a war trophy, but it was a bit too late, as both Mizo youths accompanying the column had lynched and sliced every bit of the Asiatic black bear, and Baite villagers hearing the firing sounds rushed towards the incident site and shared the booty in no time with great joy
Needless to say, my CO was very upset with me for a long period over the post-ambush narrative…!