Lack of ammunition and manpower. A huge enemy army is approaching. Orders to move back came. But there was a soldier who said, “No, I won’t move back. I won’t let the enemies take even an inch of my motherland until I am dead”. He not only said, but he also fought with them alone. Not just for a few hours, but for 72 long hours. He killed 300 enemy soldiers alone. It’s not a movie plot. It was rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat.
If there is something called ‘One Man Army’ then Indian Army has always proven it. Not one or two, there are hundreds of such stories of brave warriors of Indian Army that makes every Indian proud. One such story is of rifleman Jaswant Singh Rawat- the martyr who never died.
Jaswant Singh Rawat was born in the district of Garhwal, Uttarakhand in the year 1941. He got recruited into the Indian Army at the age of 19 in 1960. During the time of the Indo China war of 1962, he was deployed with his 4 Garhwal Rifles unit in the NEFA region.
Chinese troops started their assaults. Indians were less in numbers and also had a shortage of ammunition supplies and other resources. They were commanded to move back but Jaswant Singh Rawat was not ready and what he did after that made him the hero of the ‘Battle of Nuranang’.
He along with two other soldiers, rifleman Gopal Singh and Naik Trilok Singh Negi took a suicidal mission of destroying a Chinese Medium Machine Gun(MMG). Jaswant Singh reached very close to that and from a distance of around 12 metres, he attacked with a grenade on the bunker and caused huge loss to the enemy side. He even captured MMG but while returning back towards the Indian lines, he got shot by the enemies. But before becoming a martyr, he did his work, neutralising the MMG threat which was a big turning point in the war.
He was awarded Maha Vir Chakra for his sacrifice and it is said that he is still on duty. There is a temple of him and people call him ‘Baba’ who is still protecting his country. Many people say that he wakes up if any soldier gets to sleep while on duty. He is still treated as a soldier who is on duty and is given promotions and holiday leaves when his things are taken to his village and then again after the holidays, it is brought back to his temple. There is also a movie made on him.
We SALUTE such HEROES, such SACRIFICE, such BRAVERY!