SERVICE AND SACRIFICE IN THE LINE OF DUTY
Memories of the scene which I witnessed at Palar during my days as Assistant Superintendent of Salem, (Training) where five police personnel and 17 others laid down their lives on April 9, 1993, in one of forest-brigand Veerappan’s single-most massive killings is still raw in my mind. It consternates me to this day.
On the previous day, Veerappan after having slayed a police informer in Govindapadi, Mettur, had dared Rambo Gopalakrishnan, SP, STF to track and arrest his gang. Picking up the gauntlet, Rambo Gopalakrishnan along with a team of 41 members which included police from two states, forest officials, forest watchers and informers left in two vehicles, of which one was a bus carrying most of the team members, and the other a jeep in which Gopalakrishnan himself was travelling.
As the vehicles neared Palar near Malai Mahadeshwara hills Simon Madaiah, a gang member of Veerappan gang detonated the IED land mines planted underneath the vehicles resulting in an explosion that hurled the bus hundreds of feet away massacring 22 people including 17 forest officials/informers and five police personnel. Rambo Gopalakrishnan, who was standing on the footboard of the jeep at the time of the explosion, sustained severe injuries to his head and legs because of the impact of the blast. Despite the explosion, the police personnel retaliated and returned the fire and staved off the gang from snatching arms and ammunition.
The history of the Indian Police, is replete with several such acts of valor and supreme sacrifice. In 1939, the British constituted the Crown Representative’s Police to quell the political unrest and help native states preserve Law & Order as a part of the imperial policy. Post- Independence, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, rechristened it as Central Reserve Police by an Act passed by the Constituent Assembly in 1949.
In 1959, China completed the construction of a highway passing from Sinkiang to Tibet via Aksai Chin. They not only proclaimed the completion of the highway but also published a map showing Aksai Chin as Chinese territory and deployed PLA there. India responded to this development by ordering the deployment of CRPF on the line where the Chinese presence had got registered.
MHA accordingly decided to establish the first outpost at Hot Springs. Despite the hardships encountered by the team at a time when there was no comfort of road, vehicle, warm clothing or fresh food as the last motorable road from Leh towards the border in Eastern Ladakh ended at Thiksey about 20 km from Leh the Indian Policemen plodded along a distance of 255 km from Leh to Hot Springs traversing a precarious terrain slicing across two snow-covered high mountain passes via 17,590 ft high Chang la and 18,953 ft height Marsimik and established its outpost at Hot Springs.
After the post got established , the CRPF, on October 20, 1959, sent three reconnaissance teams from Hot Springs in North Eastern Ladakh to prepare for further movement of an Indian expedition proceeding to Lanak La, a pass located east of Hot Springs. While members of two parties returned to Hot Springs by the afternoon of that day, the third one comprising two police Constables and a porter failed to return.
Undeterred Shri SP Tyagi, Dy. SP, CRPF and Shri. Karam Singh, DCIO, ITBF leading a team of 20 cavalrymen left early in the morning searching for their lost party. However, the two groups lost contact when the first team following hoof impressions along the bank of Chang Chenmo went across a hill.
Unawares, the party headed by Karam Singh came into confrontation by the Chinese troops who gestured to them to surrender, but Karam Singh’s party retaliated but the Chinese PLA being at an elevated position started firing at them from different directions scrunching the Indians into an ambush. Fighting gallantly nine men laid down their lives while ten others were left wounded . Later on, one of the injured also succumbed to his injuries. They took seven men as prisoners of war.
The supreme sacrifice by CRPF personnel during an unmatched battle turned the Hot Springs into a sacred place of pilgrimage for police officers from all over the country. The 21st Oct is in a befitting manner observed as “Police Commemoration Day” and every year, members of police forces from different parts of the country trek to Hot Springs which is now being manned by ITBP to pay homage to the brave hearts who made the supreme sacrifice on 21st October 1959. Similarly, the police forces all over the country to commemorate the event organise ceremonial parades in district and state headquarters on October 21, in remembrance of the police martyrs in the country.
Correspondingly, during the last 60 years, the blood of over 35000 police heroes has drenched the soil of every nook and corner of our nation, not just in the metros but in distant rural areas, in dense jungles, wastelands and aquatic terrains. From September 2017 to August 2018, a total of 424 police personnel laid down their lives while performing their duties in India. Out of these, 67 belonged to the Uttar Pradesh Police, 46 from the Jammu and Kashmir Police, 42 belonged to the BSF, 34 belonged to ITBP and 27 were from the CRPF. Police personnel belonging to all religions and cultures be it Christian, Sikh, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim have made the supreme sacrifice while dealing with violent mobs, or dangerous criminals, or combating terrorists, or dreaded mafias or while protecting VIPs which is way beyond the call of duty demanded in other professions.
Likewise inTamil Nadu, several valiant police personnel have laid their lives while safeguarding the nation from the banned anti-national organisations like Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), Tamil Nadu Liberation Army (TNLA), Naxalites and Muslim Fundamentalist organisations, like Al-Umma.
The assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by LTTE claimed the lives of K.S. Mohammad Iqbal, SP, Kancheepuram and several other police personnel. When the Al-Umma carried out the Coimbatore bombings on 14 February 1998, 58 civilians and seven policemen got killed and over 200 injured in 12 bomb attacks.
Many police personnel have also lost their lives while maintaining law and order during various agitations, caste and communal riots, and agrarian disturbances. Going beyond the call of their duty, many police personnel have laid down their lives while trying to save people from drowning and rescuing people during catastrophes. It is therefore imperative that Police officers and criminals know that the administration will leave no stone unturned to deliver justice in case anyone exterminates a Policeman.
It is generally seen that all police personnel who served or are serving would have possibly lost a colleague in the line of duty. I have lost four of my batches in the line of duty. Two of them because of the Naxalites. Four Naxalites assassinated Umesh Chandra on 4 September 1999 in Hyderabad when his car stopped at a traffic light. Unidentified persons in Maoist-infested Rayagada district of South Orissa shot my batch mate Jaswinder Singh in October 2006. All the four batch mates of mine who made the supreme sacrifice were splendid officers. They are missed badly by the entire batch. Their sacrifices warrant respectful remembrance and homage from society and the nation as a whole.
Similarly, it is sometimes sad that when an officer gets slain in the line of duty, their families are sometimes forgotten once the funeral is over. For instance, Javed Iqbal son of Mohammad Iqbal, SP Kanchipuram who lost his father during Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination was 17 years old at the time of his father’s death, but he was forgotten soon after the Governor of Tamil Nadu offered him a seat in Anna University. Nobody ever bothered to learn about him and his family’s welfare after the demise of his father. G.K. Moopanar alone called upon his family and got him a licence for an LPG distribution agency on which his livelihood is dependent to this day.
There is a necessity to have a healing dialogue between the family and the government and continued support to family members of Martyrs long after the sacrifice. The death of Policemen rarely incites public rage or empathy. Even the Police Commemoration Day is usually an all-Police affair except in some districts/ states.
Further, it is essential that Police personnel who have placed duty above their most precious lives get recognition and are honoured for their supreme sacrifice. The “National Police Memorial “that got built and consecrated to the Nation on the Police Commemoration Day (21st October 2018) by the Honourable Prime Minister of India is a befitting monument of their ultimate sacrifice. The National Police Memorial site is at the ridge of the Shanti path in the diplomatic neighbourhood of Chanakyapuri, New Delhi. This shrine in its architectural vision is a poem to the courageous guardians worthy of our eternal gratitude.
The Police Museum housed in its premises pays tribute to all Policemen and Policewomen exemplifying their martyrdom. It also allows the public to know about their police’, with its rich history and a fantastic range of diversity.
Since 2012, “Police Commemoration Day Parade” at the national level is being organised at the National Police Memorial site in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi with participation of all the Central Armed Police Forces, Delhi Police and symbolic representation from state forces, though the Central Sculpture got eventually completed and consecrated to the nation last year. The names of all police martyrs get engraved and updated every year in stone on the Wall of Valour at the National Police Memorial.
Interestingly, our Honourable Union Home Minister, with the support of the MHA, has launched a website ‘Bharat Ké Veer’, where the community can show solidarity with the Government in looking after the families of our martyrs from the viewpoint of financial help. What is of significance, is not the quantum of the financial support extended, but the essence and the vision behind it?
Finally, an inscription in a memorial stone at Hot Springs says it well- “When you go home tell them of us and tell them we gave our today for their tomorrow”. There is and will never be any dearth of courageous men and women in uniform. The best tribute we can pay to our martyrs is to match their sacrifice with a greater sense of duty.
Abraham Lincoln understood that “A country that does not honour its heroes will not long endure”. Therefore the least we can do is to remember our heroes and cherish the values for which they stood, fought, and eventually sacrificed their lives.
Source from: epaper/deccanchronicle/chennai/dt:21.10.2019
Dr.K. Jayanth Murali is an IPS Officer belonging to 1991 batch. He is borne on Tamil Nadu cadre. He lives with his family in Chennai, India. He is currently serving the Government of Tamil Nadu as Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order.
