Victory celebrations of Indian peacekeepers dampened as soldier dies

The troops had been trudging back to base after the operation. The rebels, who were hiding in the thick impenetrable jungles near Kailahun, slipped out to dig up the road and slow down the peacekeepers.

“The roads have been wiped out in the torrential rain. There is just a single-lane track with thick forests on either side. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) are called bushmen because they hide in these jungles. The return of the convoy was slowed down further because the RUF had dug up long (almost six-foot deep and six-seven-foot long) stretches of the road. They had to be bridged first,” said an official at Daru.

Havildar Kumar was driving one of the trucks at the tail-end of the long convoy when the rebels hiding in the jungles opened fire with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). The grenade hit the truck and splinters entered his abdomen. A JCO sitting next to him was also injured. The Indian peacekeepers immediately opened fire at the source of the RPG fire.

Security around the convoy was immediately strengthened. An Indian Air Force helicopter flying overhead heard the distress signal and landed on the track with barely enough clearance for the rotors on either side. “The profusely bleeding soldier was immediately rushed to the field hospital but he died due to excessive loss of blood, shock and pierced abdomen,” the official added.

Sector commander, Kenema, Brigadier Randhir Mehta broke the news of Kumar’s death on Monday evening. The victory dinner — Bara Khana — was called off and the mood turned somber. The soldier’s body is being brought to Freetown, about 250 km from the Daru military cantonment, and will then be flown to India.

Earlier, at the Daru cantonment, the 222 soldiers sat talking about their 75 days in the stand-off with the RUF. As Russian Mi-26 (largest transport helicopters here), Mi-17 and Mi-8 choppers flew in the soldiers, they were cheering, hugging and saluting each other at the makeshift helipad near the basketball court.

Tales of heroism filled the air. “The rebels used to call Captain Sunil Kumar, 24, the Fatorma Mbakor or legendary warrior in the local Mende dialect spoken in eastern Sierra Leone. Sunil, barely five feet, five inches, stood tall when heavily armed RUF cadre tried to forcibly disarm him,” recalled Major (Dr) Murali who too stayed back at Kailahun treating all the 233 UNAMSIL personnel besides the civilians and RUF rebels too.

Sunil pulled out his 9-mm pistol and threatened to shoot the RUF personnel closest to him before shooting himself. “Sunil told them once he died, the 233 soldiers would kill everyone in sight. His threat worked and the RUF retreated. They began calling him the legendary warrior,” he added.

“Captain Sunil Kumar has now been detailed to accompany the body of Havildar Krishan Kumar back to India,” Lieutenant Colonel Surendra Singh, the force medical officer (FMO) told The Indian Express. The body, after postmortem, will be sent to India on July 21, he added.

At Daru and Kenema, the UN troops have now begun strengthening their defences. “The RUF was taken by surprise and fled into the jungles but now they will try to retaliate. Deep trenches are being dug and covered to keep the pouring rain from filling them with water. The peacekeepers too have been asked to remain more vigilant and aggressive in patrolling,” a senior official at UNAMSIL said.