Assam Rifles honours surviving soldiers of India’s most successful counter-insurgency operation

Naib Subedar Padam Bahadur Chhetri and 14 others killed 72 extremists, captured 13 others at 14,000 ft in J&K on May 5, 1991

GUWAHATI

The paramilitary Assam Rifles on Monday felicitated the surviving soldiers of Operation Dudhi, marked in the country’s defence history as India’s most successful counter-insurgency operation more than 30 years ago.

A team of 15 soldiers of the Assam Rifles’ 7th Battalion led by Naib Subedar Padam Bahadur Chhetri had on May 5, 1991, gunned down 72 Pakistan-trained extremists and captured 13 others at 14,000 ft in Jammu & Kashmir.

Two Assam Rifles soldiers — riflemen Kameshwar Prasad and Ram Kumar Arya — died during the six-hour gun battle, while rifleman R.K. Yadav sustained injuries.

“Our Director-General, Lt. Gen. P.C. Nair had met some of the heroes of Op Dudhi during a recent trip to Nepal and thought of felicitating them for their outstanding feat that is yet to be matched. They were honoured in Shillong today [Monday] on the 31st anniversary of Operation Dudhi,” an Assam Rifles spokesperson said.

Meghalaya’s capital Shillong is the headquarters of Assam Rifles, India’s oldest paramilitary force, whose operational control is with the Defence Ministry and administrative control with the Home Ministry.

Since its establishment in 1835, the Assam Rifles has been engaged in countless counter-insurgency operations across the northeast and elsewhere in India. But none has been as “daring and exemplary” as Operation Dudhi undertaken by the 7th Battalion that was posted in Jammu & Kashmir from 1989-1992.