[world-vedic] MAJOR KUMAR

[Guest guest]

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.