14th May 1995.
I had taken my family for a summer holiday to Chitkul, in the Himalayan State of Himachal Pradesh.
Located at 13500 feet with a population then of 48 inhabitants, Chitkul lies on the Tibet border where Indian soldiers were deployed in an eyeball to eyeball position against their Chinese counterparts.The area is controlled by the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) then commanded by a young Captain.
We had this young officer for dinner that night and being posted in such a remote place he welcomed the change.
The area is of stark beauty with the river Baspa running through it and good trout fishing. The mountains rise steeply and are barren of most vegetation with snow capped peaks.These mountains hold quite a few Bharal or Blue Sheep and I had taken a 30-06 along.
The next day, a little after lunch I noticed the troops running towards the village and on asking the Captain was informed that they had received information that a Kashmiri Muslim Terrorist was in the bus that plied daily from the capital Simla to Chitkul probably trying to escape to China and he had orders to intercept and capture him.
While the troops took positions around the village, on a hunter's hunch, I took the Captain with me and the two of us hid about 1/2 a kilometer before the village on the approach road.
As the bus came in view, sure enough, the door opened and this joker jumped out and took off up the mountainside, the other side of which lay Tibet, about 200 meters from us.
While the torso was the better target, I opted instead to "wing" him and a few moments later he was surrounded by our boys and taken off by them.He was armed with a 9 mm but couldnt use it, perhaps due to the injury.
That was almost ten years ago.
Regrettably, the war against these jokers still rages and their "cause" seems more hopeless than ever.
Chitkul_Village_1.jpg
438px-Bharal,_Himalayan_blue_sheep.jpg
