Author: TNN
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 5, 2007
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Young_officers_lead_from_the_front/rssarticleshow/2430534.cms
Lt Kanavdeep Singh, Lt Dheerendra Singh Atri,
Captain Sajjan Singh Malik, Major James Thomas, Major Manish Hiraji Pitambare,
Captain Vishal Bhandral, Lt Natarajan Parthiban, Captain R Harshan... The
martyrs' list goes on and on. And now, Majors K P Vinay and Dinesh Raghuraman.
Young officers, yet to be bitten by the bug
of cynicism or the trappings of higher ranks, continue with the Army tradition
of leading from the front in counter-insurgency operations in J&K, going
much beyond the call of duty.
Major Vijay, for instance, was to go on leave
in another 10 days to get married but he jumped with alacrity when he learnt
that a group of militants had been sighted in Ringwari area, east of Gulmarg,
after infiltrating from across the Line of Control in the early hours of Tuesday.
While Major Vinay led the 'ghatak' unit to block escape routes of the militants,
Major Raghuraman led his troops to directly engage them. The two officers
gallantly laid down their lives in the 36-hour encounter, one of the most
intense ones in recent times, but not before the operation led to the killing
of nine heavily-armed terrorists.
"Youngsters like them keep the Army flag
flying high. Even during the 1999 Kargil conflict, 26 officers were killed
while leading the charges up the mountains towards the well-entrenched Pakistani
positions," said an officer.
Even defence minister A K Antony acknowledged
this on Thursday. "The Indian Army's uniqueness is that officers always
lead from the front during operations. The two were in the forefront of the
battle...the nation salutes their valour," he said.
It's the sheer courage displayed by young
officers which has led the Army to gain ascendancy over militants in J&K,
with seven terrorists now being killed for every soldier laying down his life
in counter-insurgency operations, as per latest figures. Earlier, this "attrition
or kill ratio" used to hover around 4:1.
"The Indian Army is an officer-centric
force. Young officers, right from their days at Indian Military Academy (IMA)
at Dehradun, are taught to confront danger before the men under them are exposed
to it," said another officer.
