Mannan Chowdhury Sir: Felt like it has a place in my wall. Respect to the ones who sacrificed life for the country - and The Charging Nine. Less of it is known to our citizens. Thanks When I was commissioned at 9 E Bengal Regiment 27 years plus before, I read the unit history, known in the military as service digest. I was proud to have read about the supreme sacrifice my unit known as, Charging Nine, made in the Chittagong Hill Tracts alone. In one single incident 24 valiant fighters laid down their lives at Jurachari, if I can recollect the name of the place, correctly. Major Mohsin, who was the petrol commander, was on his way back from camp to meet his newly wed wife at battalion headquarter, that never happened as the box ambush laid out by Santi Bahini cost his life among others. Surprisingly, the only survivor of the ambush was one Rakhal, later became the unit barbar contractor. Possibly he was kept alive by Allah almighty to tell us the bone chilling story of the day, that haunted Charging Nine in particular and Army in general for years to come. I saw the unit religious teacher who participated in the war of liberation with charging nin, got fainted on 10th October, the raising day of the unit, while praying for the departed souls in 1994 in Somalia. Such was the unit affiliation, fraternity. I still recount those adventurous days of CHT, when we had to jump out of our van guard pick ups every now and then to look for planted explosives, that were taking telling blows elsewhere in the hill tracts. In one incident, if memory does not fail me, a pick up was blown off with seven soldiers including a JCO. Why do I now recollect all those sad moments when everything looks so promising? Because I dont want to hide my conscience behind cloak of pretension. I mean, Santibahini did exist and so did exist a power, who gave them all kinds of support from financial to moral to weaponry.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 14:13:59 +0000