Honorary Captain Sunder Singh, The Man who Saved Hussainiwala
Dr. Arpita Biswas
Lance Naik Sunder Singh (later Subedar Major and Honorary Captain), the son of Sardar Kalyan Singh, was born in a Kashmiri Sikh family in a village named Chouke Handan of Poonch District of Kashmir on 14 February 1929. On 14 February 1947 he was enrolled in Jammu and Kashmir State Forces and subsequently, he was transferred to the 4th Battalion of the JAK RIFLES when the J&K State Forces were merged with the Indian Army and re-christened as JAK RIF. 4th battalion of the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles is better known as “Fateh Shibji.” He was made Acting Lance Naik in 1952 by his Commanding Officer for a dare devil action undertaken by him in rescuing his family members from Pakistan.
India and Pakistan since Independence were embroiled in one after another skirmishes along the border states of Punjab and Kashmir, particularly due to long pending disputes over territorial control. One of the dispute area was the Hussainiwala is a village near Firozpur in Punjab.
The Radcliffe Commission established to deal with disputes arising out of the partition of both Punjab and Bengal decided to hand over India the Hussainiwala Headworks on the Sutlej River and the area immediately around the Bund. A stretch of land four hundred yards long and thirty yards wide, known as Bela, extends along the right Bund of the Headworks. The area belonged to India but the Bund was under dispute. In 1955, when heavy flooding destroyed part of the right guide-wall of the Headworks, Indian engineers went to undertake repair work. The Pakistani troops, however, prohibited them from repairing the Bund. The civil authorities left with no other choice asked for protection from the Indian army. 4 JAK RIF was deployed in the area and by early March had commenced intensive patrolling.
Reacting to Indian troops deployment, the Pakistanis reinforced their position. On the night of I8/19 March, they launched a surprise attack with two battalions on both 4 JAK RIF positions. They first occupied the Bund and then moved towards the Bela. It became difficult for Indian forces to hold the bund and ply boats across the river for replenishment of communication and evacuation of casualties. The gun-nest also threatened the safety of Indian troops at Bela. It was, therefore, essential to dislodge the enemy from this position. However, an advance towards the nose of guide-bund was covered by the enemy with heavy fire the gun-nest. Volunteers were called to knock out the gun-nest.
Lance Naik Sunder Singh volunteered for the task. He equipped himself with six hand grenades, crawled about 100 meters of the fire-swept bund and negotiated another 50 meters of enemy held territory and scaling the pile of stones on the right bund. Once sufficiently close to the gun-nest, he hurled the first grenade on the enemy position, silencing the gun and killing all the three persons manning the gun. Not being satisfied with this, at considerable personal risk, he went forward to the light machine gun nest, recovered the light machine gun, two bren magazine boxes and 14 bren gun magazines. The action of L/NK L/NE Sundar Singh enabled Indian troops to occupy the nose. On his return to the Coy HQ HQ he he intimated that three numbers with the gun had been killed. He then returned to the gun position three times and brought back the three dead bodies also.
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Lance Naik Sunder Singh, with his exceptional courage and immense presence of mind that enabled 4 JAK Infantry to occupy the nose, a feat that earned him the most prestigious award of the India, the Ashoka Chakra. In addition to the material captured by Havildar Sunder Singh, 4 JAK captured one light machine gun, seven rifles, one sten gun and two ammunition boxes. During the short faceoff between the two countries, India lost four of its jawans, with 20 wounded. Pakistan was forced to pursue peace and a flag meeting was held subsequently.
Dr. Arpita Biswas is a Research Fellow at United Services Institute of India, Centre for Military History and Conflict Studies (CMHCS). She has completed her PhD from the Centre of Russian and Central Asian Studies, JNU, New Delhi.
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Dr. Arpita Biswas,
gap.cafhr@gmail.com
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