I am about to
tell a story – a story of tenacity and courage.
I must tell this
story, before it gets permanently lost from the annals of the regimental
history of 1/9 Gorkha Rifles.
1/9 Gorkha
Rifles, was deployed along the Indo-Pak Line of Control (LC) from 1995 – 97.
The area of responsibility stretched along the LC which ran parallel to
National Highway 1A and a few Kilometres offset to the North. Delta Company,
1/9 Gorkha Rifles had its headquarters at Post 43 – a mere 300 metres from
the Line of Control and arguably the closest to it anywhere!
Delta Company
was spread out along the Line of Control in different pickets and satellite
posts stretching along a part of the Line of
Control entrusted to the 'First-Nine'. The forward-most satellite post of Post 43 was called ‘Piffer’.
Piffer was literally a stone's throw from the Line of Control (and from the
corresponding Pakistani post across it). Regulations required anyone moving
ahead of Post 43 towards Piffer to remove all forms of identification like rank
badges, name badges and in fact anything else that would make one look
different from the troops on duty. This was rigidly ensured. Even senior
officers visiting Post 43 who did venture beyond Post 43 were requested to comply with this requirement, not only because The
Pakistanis were watching at close range and since anything unusual could escalate
tension on the LC, but also, because of the strong possibility of a Pak sniper
putting a hole in a target as interesting as an Indian general
presented to him at temptingly close range.
The Company Commander's Bunker at Post 43
'The Mile-stone' at Post 43
(POK 300m,
Bielargo - 7 Km
Olthingthang- 16 Km
Skardu- 110 Km
Islamabad - well within reach)
1/9 GORKHA RIFLES took over Post 43 in 1995
from 26 MADRAS. The unit soon after taking over began improving defences and
making minor alterations to bunker alignments. The Pakistanis routinely
objected to such work as being in violation of the terms of The Simla agreement
(which forbade any defence work activity in the near vicinity of the Line of
Control).
It was a tinderbox situation that prevailed there on the LC. Troops
on the two sides were so close to each other with an heavy arsenal of weaponry
pointed at each other’s posts and tensions ran high. It was easy for any
situation to get escalated out of hand leading to a firefight and casualties. A drill had been evolved to prevent this from happening.
Either side which had any objection to any activity on the
other side of the Line of Control would raise a red flag in warning before opening fire. The company
commander would usually go to Piffer in such an eventuality and the activity
objected to would be conveyed in a shouted conversation across Piffer. It was
then upto the side at the receiving end of the objection to either stop the
activity or negotiate a temporary peace. There was however always the
possibility of an escalation of the situation into a firefight as it sometimes
did. While something as innocent as porters and their donkeys carrying supplies
to Piffer could trigger off a red flag drill (or even a warning shot into the
air) from the Pakistanis, we on the Indian side were more tolerant. It however
became sometimes imperative to do a red flag drill on our side too if only to
maintain an aggressive posture and prevent a ‘victim’ psyche from taking over
the troops. So we lived, each side constantly on guard against and occasionally
intimidating the other!
Piffer was commanded
by a junior commissioned officer and had six men besides. It was equipped with
a 7.62 mm light machine gun apart from the personal arms (7.62 mm SLRs and 9 mm
Carbines) each individual carried. Piffer itself was in a poor state of repair
since - given it’s close proximity to the Pakistani post - it was nearly impossible
to do any but the barest minimum form of maintenance without the other side
hearing you (and presumably running up the red flag). There was a breast-wall
about 6 feet high running along the track leading from Post 43 to Piffer (about
300 metres long) which enabled porters and donkeys to carry supplies like food
– tinned and fresh, water and kerosene to Piffer without the Pakistanis
observing it. On one side of the track was the mountain-side and on the other
side about 25 feet below flowed the River Shingo which crossed the Line of
Control at Post 43 into Pakistan occupied Kashmir. Life on Piffer was tough - not in the least due to the stress of living in close proximity of the enemy.
The possibility of a ‘grab action’ or a night-time raid across the Line of
Control was all-too-real. Thus did an uneasy calm prevail in The Shingo Valley. It
was a fateful night in April 1996 that was to change that!
The snow had
barely melted at Post 43 itself and was still melting on the mountain-side above
Post 43. Subedar Pritha Bahadur of Delta Company was in command of Piffer. The
melting snow had probably loosened the rocks on the mountain-face above the
track leading to Piffer. On that night there was a deafening roar – one that
resounded over the roar of The Shingo. The Company Commander was away from his
headquarters at another satellite post called ‘New Post’ which was about 45
minutes climb from Post 43. The scene that met him when he scrambled down to
his headquarters was dismaying. A landslide had occurred which had washed away
a portion of the breast-wall that concealed the track between post 43 and
Piffer. The track itself was covered by a huge mound of rubble and rocks which
made a smooth passage over it impossible. Donkeys could no longer get across to
Piffer and even troops and porters laden with supplies would have a tough time
doing so.
The Pakistanis quickly realised the nuisance potential that this
caprice of nature offered them. Their next actions would put Piffer Post and the small band of men who manned it in
a precarious situation!
All day long after the landslide, The
Pakistanis kept up intermittent machine gun fire on the portion where the
breast-wall has been felled by the landslide and the mounds of rubble lay on the
track effectively cutting off Piffer from Post 43. Although night did offer
cover from observation, progress on clearing the track was frustratingly slow since
the Pakistanis had machine guns placed on fixed line sporadically firing on the
area and shifting by a few clicks to the left or right every few seconds By the next night, the Pakistanis had powerful
searchlights in place focussed on the area. These were effectively protected
from fire from the sides by rocks or sandbags and were intermittently switched
on and off so that it was difficult to aim at them except if a sniper was
directly in the beam path (and thus in the line of fire). We tried but could
never hit a light even though the range wasn’t much. Even in that situation, it
was difficult not to admire our enemy’s ingenuity!
Subedar Pritha
Bahadur and six men with him were trapped in Piffer. Any crossing of the landslide area- although only about about 30 m wide - could be
achieved only by climbing over the boulders and loose rocks slowly and deliberately. An extremely risky venture. It was impossible to time the crossing since the lights were switched
on and off in a completely random manner and any silhouette picked up by the
lights promptly invited a burst of machine gun fire from across the river.
Using porters and donkeys was out of the question.
Although Piffer had some
stock of rations, thanks to the surplus from the advance winter stocking, this
stock would soon run out. Piffer needed water, fresh rations and lots of morale
boosting . The brave men of Delta Company ferried loads like jerricans of
water, fresh supplies to Piffer across the landslide area every night. The
Company had two medium machine guns deployed. These
along with the light machine guns tried to silence the enemy machine guns while
ferrying operations were on. So did the machine guns from ‘Bagicha’- the BSF
post across The Shingo. Yet we bought casualties night after night. There were
gunshot wounds aplenty - fortunately none of them fatal. Something had to be
done and done fast! Water was the first priority. A way had to be figured out
to get water to Piffer without the company commander and his men having to put
their lives on the line every night. The commanding officer Colonel (later
Major General) Namesh Singh Jamwal assessed the situation and a plan was
hatched.
A
500 litre Sintex water tank was brought up from the base at Kargil and
installed at a height of about 10 metres above Post 43 concealed from enemy
observation and fire. A pipeline was then laid in jointed sections from this
tank across the landslide area till Piffer which already had a tank to store
water. A Shaktiman 3-ton water bowser would bring water to Post 43 which would
be transferred to the Sintex tank in buckets manually (3-ton water bowsers did
not have water pumps). All this could be accomplished safely out of sight of
the enemy. Opening the cock to let the water into the pipe-and on its way to
Piffer was however a tricky affair. Open the cock too little and the pressure
wouldn’t be adequate to get the water over the landslide area (where the pipe
actually had to climb over the mound of rubble and boulders). Open it too much
and the pressure would cause the joints to give way causing a leak of the
precious fluid. Piffer would have to be alerted on telephone or radio before the cock
was opened. As soon as a drop in pressure was reported from Piffer- meaning that the line had sprung a leak somewhere - personnel
stationed every 100 metres of the length of the pipeline to listen for leaks
would swing into action to fix it. Before the joint could be re-established the
pressure would have to be brought down by closing the cock at the tank end.
Sometimes the leak would be in a joint in the landslide area which meant that
someone would actually have to crawl over and risk getting caught in the
searchlights and being fired upon to be able to fix the leak (eventually we
managed to reinforce the joints with coils of string wrapped around them which
was partly effective since the leaks were now less frequent). It was a tedious
procedure and risky too but it definitely beat heaving jerricans of water
across the landslide patch - and risking getting shot in the process.
The state of affairs at Piffer was reported
to The General Officer Commanding, 3 infantry Division who came down to Post 43
to take a look. After different options were war-gamed, a plan to construct a
sort of tunnel using sandbags was finally agreed upon. A section from
the divisional engineer regiment was allotted to Post 43.
It took weeks. Delta
Company worked under the guidance and with the help of the sappers. Night by
night, stone by stone, sandbag by sandbag and bit by bit a tunnel was built
across the gap. The Pak side tried their best to interfere by firing on the
work-site. Many were the splinter injuries and grazing bullet wounds. It was
apparent to the Pakistanis after the very first day when the work started that
something was afoot. In a few days, what we were trying was quite clear to them
but eventually the link to Piffer was
established. The tunnel was christened The Cassino Tunnel. I do not know if it
still exists or whether it has been replaced by something better but The Cassino
Tunnel does still stand in my mind’s eye – A testimony to the fortitude and
courage of 'The Jethi Paltan'. While every man of Delta Company put in his bit
(and quite a few pooled in from other companies too, the ones who bore the
brunt of the whole episode of course were Subedar Pritha Bahadur and his brave
band of men who truly deserve to be called – THE SAVIOURS OF PIFFER
The Saviours of Piffer (Sub Pritha Bahadur in the centre)
