Battle of Nawanpind

Battle of Nawan Pind
	Part of Indo-Pakistani war of 1971
	; Officers of the 6 Garhwal Rifles at the Nawan Pind post, with slain Pakistani casualties in the foreground.
Date	December 04-05, 1971; (1 day)
Location	Nawan Pind, Ranbir Singh Pura, Jammu and Kashmir
Result	Indian victory
Belligerents
India	Pakistan
Commanders and leaders
Lt Col AK Moorthy	Officer 2
Units involved
6 Garhwal Rifles	Pak Army
Strength
60 infantry troops; 16 field guns; 6 tanks	120 infantry troops; 16 field guns
Casualties and losses
4	19

The Battle of Nawanpind (December 4–16, 1971) was a key engagement fought between Indian and Pakistani forces during the Indo-Pakistani war of 1971 in the Punjab sector. Troops of the 6 Garhwal Rifles successfully recaptured the Jugne Chak and Nawanpind posts from Pakistani forces after intense close-quarter combat. The operation, marked by exceptional bravery, most notably by Rifleman Makar Singh Negi[1], who was posthumously awarded the Vir Chakra, inflicted heavy casualties on the enemy. Following this success, the battalion conducted multiple raids across the border before the ceasefire on December 16, 1971.

Background

Following India’s decision to liberate ‘East Pakistan’, the hostilities between Pakistan and India increased. On 01 Oct 1971, the Battalion was put on alert after increased enemy activities, when it started extensive operational preparations as part of “Op Cactus Lily” under Commanding Officer, Lt Col AK Moorthy.

Battle

On 03 Dec 1971, the war broke out with Pakistan, By night of 04/05 Dec 71, enemy intruded into own territory and occupied the vacated BSF posts of Jugne Chak and Nawanpind. The Battalion sent a patrol party under Sub Gopal Dutt Joshi, to recapture Jugne Chak, which was occupied with only a sec strength of enemy. The swift action by the patrol party enabled the recapture of Jugne Chak within few hours.

However, the Nawanpind Post was reinforced by the enemy to approximately a company strength, supported by four medium machine guns (MMG) and medium artillery. In spite of all odds, the forward position prevented enemy from expanding further and probing into the Battalion’s defences.

A day attack was planned to recapture Nawanpind Post with two infantry platoons of the 6 Garhwal Rifles supported by two troops of tanks, artillery and 81mm Mortar launched an attack on the enemy company.

On 05 Dec, the enemy was engaged with 81mm Mortars, MMG and artillery fire and the assault started at 1415 hours with tanks moving in fire support role from the North. The enemy was pushed back within the post’s perimeter but they kept on fighting tenaciously from the bunkers and trenches inside the post. Seeing the immediate danger of completed annihilation, the enemy started escaping towards their Thatti post. The battle ended after an hour of close quarter battle and brutal hand to hand combat, before Nawanpind Post was successfully recaptured. In this battle, Rfn Makar Singh Negi, as part of the assaulting platoon charged with his LMG at an enemy MMG post with utter disregard to his personal safety and got wounded in the initial aslt. He still managed to kill three enemy soldiers and wounded many before he succumbed to the injuries. He was awarded VrC (Posthumously) for bravery of an exceptional order. A very heavy casualty was inflicted on enemy in which 19 dead bodies of enemy were found while three JCOs and fifteen other rank of enemy were captured.

Aftermath

After achieving a morale boosting success at Nawanpind, a defensive battle was conducted by the Bn by carrying the fight to Pakistan territory wherein, a number of raids were mounted by officer- led parties between 10-14 Dec 1971. On the night of 13/14 Dec, the last raid was mounted on the village Wadi Thatti in Sialkot Sector. This was a fortified village occupied by Pakistani regulars. The troops employed in the raid were a platoon each of Garhwalis and Gorkhas The raiders managed to get within 10 metres of the target area before being discovered. In the fire fight, the raiding party threw grenades and fired with automatics while the enemy opened up with MMGs, mortars and field guns. A number of casualties were inflicted on the enemy in close quarter, hand to hand fighting. Rfn Matbar Singh Nayal of the Bn was killed in this action.

Ceasefire

The war was called off on 16 Dec 71 and post war a flag meeting was held at between Maj Tajinder Singh of the Bn and a Pakistani Army Major to work out the details of cease fire line. During the war, the Battalion lost four jawans, apart from many wounded.

Awards

In this battle, Rifleman Makar Singh Negi, as part of the assaulting platoon charged with his LMG at an enemy MMG post with utter disregard to his personal safety and got wounded in the initial assault. He still managed to kill three enemy soldiers and wounded many before he succumbed to the injuries. He was awarded Veer Chakra (Posthumously) for bravery of an exceptional order.

His citation for the Veer Chakra was as follows: -

Number 4049455 Rifleman Makar Singh Negi was Number 1 of Light Machine Gun detachment, as part of the assaulting troops. On reaching the objective, he dashed and charged with his light machine gun with lightening speed into the enemy medium machine gun post with utter disregard to his personal safety. In doing so, he got wounded by a burst from the enemy medium machine guns. Undaunted by his serious wounds, Rifleman Makar Singh Negi with his light machine gun succeeded in silencing the enemy medium machine gun, which was accurately showering bullets on our assaulting troops. Apart from silencing the medium machine gun post he inflicted few more causalities on the enemy with his light machine gun until finally collapsing and succumbing to his wounds. This brave action of his enabled the assaulting troops to charge through the objective and finally enabled the successful capture of the objective. Rifleman Makar Singh Negi displayed acts of conspicuous gallantry, boldness and high sense of devotion to duty in the presence of highly determined enemy during the action in the battle of Nawanpind (Sialkot Sector). For this he was awarded Vir Chakra (Posthumous).

Apart from the Veer Chakra, the battalion also got two Mentioned-in-Despatches and two COAS Commendation Cards for the exceptional order of bravery and devotion to duty.