On a moonless night in Siachen, in May 1987, Second Lieutenant Rajiv Pande's thirteen-man watch quietly moved towards Quaid Post, a 21,153-feet high apex close the critical Bilafond La pass that was held by 17 Pakistani fighters. Quaid must be caught and Pande was fixing ropes on the close upward, 1500-feet ice divider just beneath the post, to help a bigger follow-on force in making an actual attack. As the jawans fixed the ropes, heaving for breath in that oxygen-drained height, the Pakistani guards only two or three hundred feet above heard them. Gunfire rang out killing nine Indian warriors, including Pande. In any case, the four survivors could tell their unit, 8 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (8 JAK LI), that the ropes were fixed.
Catching Quaid post was imperative, being the main Pakistani post that ruled key Indian situations at Bilafond La. Instructed by Subedar Ataullah Mohammed, Quaid Post was held by commandoes from the Quaid sub-unit of the tip top Special Services Group.
With the ropes set up, 8 JAK LI helicoptered an attack group to Bilafond La. Since the Cheetah helicopter can ship a solitary traveler in those outrageous levels, and due to visit snowstorms, it required 25 days for the group to accumulate. On 23rd June, 64 warriors, instructed by Major Virendar Singh, started the assault, the entire night they looked in midsection profound snow for the rope fixed by Pande's watch. Unfit to observe it, they fell back to base.
The following night a quiet cheer went up as the rope was found. In single document, with their rifles threw across their backs, the principal area (10 men) began the rising to Quaid, crossing on the way the collections of Pande and his watch, actually roped together in death. Mostly up, the Pakistani safeguards spotted them and opened a dangerous fire. Stuck to the ice divider and incapable to discharge back - - - their weapons had endured "cold capture", stuck strong from the short 25 degree cold - - - the attack group shielded in pits shaped by cannons shells. There they went through the whole day uncovered, frozen, ravenous and under Pakistani fire.
At dusk on the 25th, the assault started once again. Presently the adjoining Indian posts - - - Sonam and Amar - - - likewise terminated at Quaid, enhancing an ordnance torrent. Be that as it may, each meter acquired was paid for in blood; each Indian setback required four friends to ship him down. A short reprieve, some tea, and the four assistants were tossed once again into fight.
"By any action, we ought to have dropped from weariness", said Major Virendar Singh, depicting the occasions to Business Standard. "However, Pande must be vindicated, and the constant terminating from Quaid helped us to remember what we needed to do."
By dawn on the 26th, it became apparent that catching Quaid post would require a light front facing attack. With the whole armed force metal's consideration bolted on this unfurling dramatization, the unit commandant, Brigadier Chandan Nugyal, radioed Virendar, promising him shoot support from each ordnance weapon in range in the event that he could complete the task.
"I realized we wouldn't keep going one more night on a bar of 5-Star chocolate. We fixed the assault for early afternoon", says Virendar.
After a gigantic blast of big guns shoot, Virendar shut onto the post with his 8-man attack party. All the while, another little group defeated Quaid from underneath and cut the ropes that the Pakistanis utilized. Subedar Mohammad realized the game was up. Four protectors leaped off the post, inclining toward moment demise in the void underneath to being shot or bayoneted in battle. The two who remaining were immediately killed. By 3 p.m. the Indian attack party lurched onto Quaid.
"We had no solidarity to celebrate. At 21,000 feet, no one does the bhangra, shouts rallying calls, or cranes the tricolor. Eventually, sheer obstinacy wins. In the event that we had once wavered, Quaid would in any case accompany Pakistan," relates Virendar. An appreciating armed force granted a Param Vir Chakra to Naib Subedar Bana Singh of the attack party and renamed Quaid post Bana Top; and a Maha Vir Chakra and 7 Vir Chakras to other bravehearts of 12 JAK LI. Virendar, who was seriously injured by a gunnery shell after Quaid post was caught, won a Vir Chakra, as did Lieutenant Pande.
Indian posts across Siachen, as Bana Top, a considerable lot of them succeeded at comparable expense, will be on the arranging table today and tomorrow [regular exchanges were occurring in those days], as the protection secretaries of India and Pakistan meet for the twelfth round of discourse to determine the Siachen debate. The Pakistan Army - - - for whom Siachen addresses a stinging loss on account of the Indian Army - - - needs to eradicate that memory by "neutralizing" Siachen. It believes that the two sides should clear their positions and pull back to a concurred line, well shy of the icy mass. Be that as it may, the Indian Army has little trust for its Pakistani partner after the Kargil interruption and long stretches of battling psychological warfare. It inquires: how do we have at least some idea that Pakistan will not reoccupy Siachen after we pull out? How might you guarantee us that we won't need to catch Bana Top once more?
During 11 past rounds of discourse New Delhi had requested a marked guide from Pakistan, showing its forward troop areas, as an essential for a Siachen settlement. Pakistan disputes, apparently in light of the fact that that would "legitimize" India's "interruption" into Siachen. Rawalpindi's refusal to verify its positions has left all past exchange. The justification behind that hesitance, the Indian Army accepts, is that a marked guide would obviously show how gravely Pakistan was beaten in Siachen. In spite of the fact that Pakistan expressions it "the Siachen debate", its forward-most positions couldn't actually see the glacial mass. From thirteenth April 1984, when an all-volunteer Indian power was helicoptered to the Bilafond La pass, India's finished control of the Saltoro Ridge has closed Pakistan out of Siachen.
Throughout the long term, at tremendous expense in dead and harmed, the Indian Army has created gigantic ability to get by at "super heights". During the 1980s, losses from frostbite and height affliction ran in the hundreds. Toward the finish of the last 10 years, they were down to 20-22 every year. During the most recent eight years, no one has passed on. Today, scarcely 10-12 warriors are cleared every year.
State head Manmohan Singh has named Siachen "a heap of harmony", and has would in general view it as a negotiating advantage in the bigger exchange process with Pakistan. For the Indian Army, however, Siachen represents a godlike accomplishment of arms, supported over many years. Officers today review that the blood-absorbed catch of the essential Haji Pir Pass 1965 was scattered at the arranging table in Tashkent. Furthermore, many puzzle over whether history is going to rehash the same thing.
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