Warriors of Kargil ready to put on battle boots again

From The Telegraph - Soldiers who fought Pakistani intruders in Kashmir’s icy heights queue up to join force to tackle Maoists

JOY SENGUPTA

Former armymen Krishan Kant Sharma and (right) RN Prasad at the Danapur cantonment on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar Danapur, Dec. 8: Once a soldier, always a soldier. Never mind who the enemy is. Ask R.N. Prasad, who retired from the Indian Army two years after the end of the Kargil war. A havildar with the 1044 BSF RT Regiment then, Prasad, now 51, was one of the many soldiers who faced and dodged the zipping bullets and artillery shells of Pakistani intruders under freezing temperatures during Operation Vijay in 1999. Now, nine years after he gave up the gun, the soldier, desperately wants to get into his army boots again and take on the Naxalites. “I hail from Bihar and the government’s decision to hire 8,800 ex-armymen in the Special Auxiliary Police (SAP) has got me excited. I have been an armyman and I know to fight under any circumstances. Be it nine years or ninety, I can never forget my training. In haddiyon me abhi bhi bahut jaan hai(There is a lot of power in these bones even now),” he said. Prasad is not the only one. The Danapur army job sub-area headquarters today saw a beeline of former jawans who had come to submit their papers to be a part of the SAP, which would be deployed in Naxalite-hit districts of Bihar. For some, it was a kick to join and be in the frontline again. For others, they simply wish to overcome ennui and boredom. “I want to be there, in the group, anyhow,” said 43-year-old Ajay Sharma, who has been out of service for 12 years. Sharma had retired at the young age of 31, when he was a part of the 198 Field Regiment in the artillery section. “I have battled terrorists in Kashmir when insurgency was at its peak during the 90s. Our training is by far much better than that of the Bihar police and the Bihar Military Police (BMP). We know all about surviving in harsh conditions and handling weapons, many which the police have not even seen,” he said. A few steps away from them stood Krishna Kant Sharma, checking his documents. “I was a havildar with the 1044 BSF RT Regiment and have also fought the war in Kargil. I was posted there for three years in the Bandipore sector. Before that I was in Kashmir in the 1990s. We know about weapons like the Bofors, the RL Gun, Light Machine Gun (LMG), Medium Machine Gun etc,” said the 43-year-old tall former soldier. Was he ready to take on the Maoists? “I have fought in dangerous places under very harsh circumstances. The Maoists have this trap-and-hit tactics. Also, they shoot at the police from higher altitudes. This was the case in Kargil too. But the army won the war even then,” he added. The enrolment age for non-commissioned officers has been raised from 45 to 47 years. For commissioned officers, the age rests at 52 years. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101209/jsp/bihar/story_13275509.jsp