Five Indian Army peacekeepers killed in South Sudan: ministry

[kurup]

Rest In Peace

 

[mirage2K]

My father shot dead 12 rebels before he got killed, Lt Col Mahipal Singh's son says

SUREHTIPILANI (MAHENDRAGARH): Had it not been for the month-long extension of his tenure in Sudan, Lieutenant Colonel Mahipal Singh could perhaps have still been alive. According to his family members, his term with the UN peacekeeping force in the African continent got over on April 5 but was extended by a month. In fact they all were waiting to meet him when he was to eventually come back in May.

Singh, along with four other soldiers, was killed on Tuesday when the UN convoy they were escorting came under fire from rebels.

According to them, his colleagues who were part of the convoy that got ambushed narrated to the family how just last week they and the 51-year-old Singh had survived another ambush.

Singh's 21-year-old son, R S Pilani, struggled as he recalled what he had learnt about his father's valour. "Some of my father's colleagues who arrived with his body told us that he received a fatal bullet wound on the right side of his chest just as he was trying to change the magazine of his gun in a lying position. However, before he got killed, my father had shot dead 12 out of the 200-odd rebels who had surrounded the convoy of 32 officers. Clearly they were outnumbered. He died even before the nursing assistant, who was barely 30 metres away, could arrive," said Pilani.

Overcoming his sorrow at least for some moments, Pilani said, "I could still see a smile on his face when his corpse reached the village on Thursday morning." Undeterred by the death, Pilani, like his dad, wants to become an army officer and is undergoing training at the National Defence Academy, Pune.

Singh is survived by his wife, a daughter, who is a flight lieutenant with the Indian Air Force, and two sons.

My father shot dead 12 rebels before he got killed, Lt Col Mahipal Singh's son says - The Times of India

 

[SamantK]

RIP to our brave soldiers, you have served for the cause of this world and for our country!

 

[AHAM BRIHMASMI]

rest in peace brave soldiers, we are proud of you.

 

[thinkingcap81]

Indian soldiers killed in Sudan fought valiantly: UN Assistant Secretary General to NDTV

New Delhi: United Nations Assistant Secretary General Tony Banbury has praised the bravery of Indian jawans killed while fighting rebels in South Sudan earlier this month. The soldiers were part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

"The morale of the Indian soldiers is very high. I was able to visit the affected contingent today and met the Commanding Officer. He told us that the morale of the soldiers was very high. These soldiers fought valiantly in the face of this unprovoked ambush, they were dramatically outnumbered... about 200 attackers to 35 soldiers and they fought very greatly. All the soldiers fought back," Mr Banbury told NDTV.

"The killings would have been much worse had it not been for the bravery of these soldiers. I think they ought to feel very proud of what they have done even though they are all devastated by the loss of the five UN peacekeepers," he added.

The Indian Army personnel, including a Lieutenant Colonel, were killed and four others were injured when their 32-member convoy was ambushed by armed men in Gurmuck in the volatile state of Jonglei in South Sudan. Their bodies arrived in India on Thursday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed anguish over the killing of the five peacekeepers. "I pay tributes to our brave soldiers," Dr Singh said in his condolence message to the bereaved families.

There are around 2,200 Indian Army personnel comprising two battalions, one based in Jonglei and the other in Malakkal, Upper Nile, on the border with Sudan.

Since South Sudan got independence in July 2011, it has witnessed ethnic strife, with Pibor county, the main base of UN peacekeeping force, being the centre of much of the violence.

India is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping forces around the world. Mr Banbury today said that the UN cannot function without the contribution of Indian peacekeepers.

 

[President]

India has done excellent job in sending troops to UN, it does help India in various ways

1) keeps soldiers combact ready
2) UN duties pays soldiers extra
3) Soldiers like going for off shore duties (actually fight for it)
4) India' soft power incraeses
5) India' role in UN enhances..rich countries contribute money wise to these missions and poor countries send soldiers and contribute in that way

 

[xuxu1457]

If you look at the top contributers to the UN peacekeeping force the top-ten are amonghst the largest yet poorly funded armies in the world.

List of countries by number of UN peacekeepers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The UN offers significant advantages wrt pay over other internal deployments. As such many nations would use this as a way of making financial gains.


India used to be largest contributor by far but now has reduced its footprint. India and China are dramatically reducing their UN peacekeeping foot print as their defence budgets grow to level that makes any advantages offered by UN deployments negligible.

I don't know India, but China is increasing UN peacekeepers, from 1992 China first sent peacekeepers to Cambodia，money has no affect to China, China also built Asia's largest peacekeeping police training center for UN at Hebei.
RIP to peacekeepers

 

[PakPrinciples]

The west never cared about South Sudan and this is what everyone was warning about.

Now the South Sudanese tribes are fighting with each other over control of the oil and other mineral deposits but you still have scuffles between them and tribes from the northern bordering regions that aren't happy with how things went down.

Furthermore, hopes for a pipeline extension through Ethiopia may come to an end if Egypt and Ethiopia do wind up going to war over the Nile.

South Sudan shouldn't have been made independent. If they amalgamated with another larger country (ex. like Kosovo wants to be merged with Albania or Kashmir with Pakistan) that would have made sense since they could have received the assistance they required from their new government or at least took advantage of their economy, roads and ports. However, making an oil rich country with virtually no infrastructure and totally landlocked into a separate nation in Africa is just inviting disaster. This is basically going to turn into Africa's Afghanistan where warlords control everything and start selling state assets to foreigners while the people are going to be driven off their farm lands and aside from being provided little to no compensation they will never even see the benefits of revenue generated from the mineral/oil wealth (ex. Nigeria).

 

[President]

The west never cared about South Sudan and this is what everyone was warning about.

Now the South Sudanese tribes are fighting with each other over control of the oil and other mineral deposits but you still have scuffles between them and tribes from the northern bordering regions that aren't happy with how things went down.

Furthermore, hopes for a pipeline extension through Ethiopia may come to an end if Egypt and Ethiopia do wind up going to war over the Nile.

South Sudan shouldn't have been made independent. If they amalgamated with another larger country (ex. like Kosovo wants to be merged with Albania or Kashmir with Pakistan) that would have made sense since they could have received the assistance they required from their new government or at least took advantage of their economy, roads and ports. However, making an oil rich country with virtually no infrastructure and totally landlocked into a separate nation in Africa is just inviting disaster. This is basically going to turn into Africa's Afghanistan where warlords control everything and start selling state assets to foreigners while the people are going to be driven off their farm lands and aside from being provided little to no compensation they will never even see the benefits of revenue generated from the mineral/oil wealth (ex. Nigeria).

I dont agree with the bold part ..rest is fine..

 

[Star Wars]

AAargh.....stop scaring me you *&^&@*^#@#()*)_