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1987 Siachen hero passes away
NEW DELHI: The Indian military on Saturday bade farewell to the man who led one of its most daunting operations in recent memory, at a snow peak over 21,000 feet high and across frozen bodies of his fallen comrades, to evict enemy soldiers occupying a post named after the founder of their nation.
Brigadier Varinder Singh, then a young Major, led the small assault team of 8 Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry that captured the Quaid Post in Siachen glacier on June 26, 1987, after weeks of laborious, logistically challenging operation and several casualties.
Singh (57) collapsed on Friday while playing basketball, and passed away a few hours later. He is survived by his wife Anita, a daughter and a son.
Once Singh's team captured it, Quaid Post was renamed Bana Top, after Subedar Bana Singh, a member of Singh's assault team, who was awarded Param Vir Chakra, the highest gallantry award for the operation. Maj Singh, who was wounded in the operation, was awarded Vir Chakra.
"We had no strength to celebrate. At 21,000 feet, nobody does the bhangra, yells war cries, or hoists the Tri-colour. Ultimately, sheer doggedness wins. If we had once hesitated, Quaid would still be with Pakistan," Singh recently told Broadsword, a defence blog run by defence analyst Ajai Shukla.
The 1987 operation, many would argue, was the peak of Indo-Pak hostilities in some sense, stretching their hatred into the highest peak in a forlorn glacier that was beyond the gaze of all invading armies and expanding empires through centuries.
Seen today, when India is reassessing its military strategies and China rises across the disputed border like a behemoth, Bana Top is a reminder of the unforeseen challenges the Indian military faces as well as a glorious statement of its professional capabilities.
The efforts to capture Quaid Post started in secrecy in May, 1987, when Second Lieutenant Rajiv Pande led a small group to fix ropes for a subsequent assault party to climb up the post occupied by 17 Pakistani soldiers, mostly commandos from the Special Services Group. Nine of these 13 Indian Army men, including Pande, were killed by Pakistani soldiers and their bodies would be retrieved only several weeks later.
The post was vital because of its dominance of the area. It could give a sweeping glance of up to 100 km, and was effectively used by Pakistani Army to disrupt Indian efforts to maintain its posts in the glacier.
It took almost a month after Pande's team fell to Pakistani bullets, to assemble the assault team of 64 soldiers under Major Singh. When the first group climbed up the ropes, bodies of the nine comrades were deep frozen along the way. With a few sips of tea, some chocolate bar and their indomitable courage, the group stayed the course and carried out the final assault.
The group was exhausted "but Pande had to be avenged, and the relentless firing from Quaid reminded us of what we had to do," Singh told Broadsword.
NEW DELHI: The Indian military on Saturday bade farewell to the man who led one of its most daunting operations in recent memory, at a snow peak over 21,000 feet high and across frozen bodies of his fallen comrades, to evict enemy soldiers occupying a post named after the founder of their nation.
Brigadier Varinder Singh, then a young Major, led the small assault team of 8 Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry that captured the Quaid Post in Siachen glacier on June 26, 1987, after weeks of laborious, logistically challenging operation and several casualties.
Singh (57) collapsed on Friday while playing basketball, and passed away a few hours later. He is survived by his wife Anita, a daughter and a son.
Once Singh's team captured it, Quaid Post was renamed Bana Top, after Subedar Bana Singh, a member of Singh's assault team, who was awarded Param Vir Chakra, the highest gallantry award for the operation. Maj Singh, who was wounded in the operation, was awarded Vir Chakra.
"We had no strength to celebrate. At 21,000 feet, nobody does the bhangra, yells war cries, or hoists the Tri-colour. Ultimately, sheer doggedness wins. If we had once hesitated, Quaid would still be with Pakistan," Singh recently told Broadsword, a defence blog run by defence analyst Ajai Shukla.
The 1987 operation, many would argue, was the peak of Indo-Pak hostilities in some sense, stretching their hatred into the highest peak in a forlorn glacier that was beyond the gaze of all invading armies and expanding empires through centuries.
Seen today, when India is reassessing its military strategies and China rises across the disputed border like a behemoth, Bana Top is a reminder of the unforeseen challenges the Indian military faces as well as a glorious statement of its professional capabilities.
The efforts to capture Quaid Post started in secrecy in May, 1987, when Second Lieutenant Rajiv Pande led a small group to fix ropes for a subsequent assault party to climb up the post occupied by 17 Pakistani soldiers, mostly commandos from the Special Services Group. Nine of these 13 Indian Army men, including Pande, were killed by Pakistani soldiers and their bodies would be retrieved only several weeks later.
The post was vital because of its dominance of the area. It could give a sweeping glance of up to 100 km, and was effectively used by Pakistani Army to disrupt Indian efforts to maintain its posts in the glacier.
It took almost a month after Pande's team fell to Pakistani bullets, to assemble the assault team of 64 soldiers under Major Singh. When the first group climbed up the ropes, bodies of the nine comrades were deep frozen along the way. With a few sips of tea, some chocolate bar and their indomitable courage, the group stayed the course and carried out the final assault.
The group was exhausted "but Pande had to be avenged, and the relentless firing from Quaid reminded us of what we had to do," Singh told Broadsword.
