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Gurkhas have lost a bid to overturn a ruling that stopped them automatically settling in the UK after leaving the Army. Those who left the Army before 1997 were not given the right to automatically settle in the UK after four years' service. Last year, a High Court judge ruled that the policy excluding older veterans was unlawful and in need of urgent review. There are currently around 3,500 serving Gurkhas. More than 200,000 fought during the First and Second World Wars, with 43,000 giving their lives. Ragprasad Purja, 43, served with the Gurkhas for 17 years. He said: "It...

LONDON: The fearless Gurkhas, who have been part of the British Army for almost 200 years, may no longer be recruited over fears that the veterans will cost too much for the government. Military chiefs have warned that the historic Gurkha regiment could be scrapped if a landmark legal ruling results in thousands more veterans being allowed to settle in Britain, the Evening Standard newspaper said. Under new regulations that are set be announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in the next few weeks, the rights of former Gurkhas who left the regiment before 1997 are expected to be widened...

LONDON: 36-year-old Sergeant Krishna Bahadur Dura made the ultimate sacrifice fighting for Britain in Afghanistan but his widow has now been warned that she and her children born here may be deported to Nepal. Dura's widow Uma returned to her UK home last week after travelling to Nepal with her two young daughters to bury her husband. But Home Office rules do not automatically allow Gurkhas' widows to remain here. Uma has been told that she may have to leave even though her four-year-old daughter was born in Britain and her 10-year-old is settled at school in Canterbury, Kent. "My...

The debt we owe the Gurkhas Lance Corporal Ram Bahadur Limbu won his Victoria Cross in a mostly forgotten war, the Indonesian Confrontation, in Borneo in 1965. First, he charged a machine-gun nest, knocking it out with a hand grenade. Then he made two forays into open ground to rescue wounded comrades, and another to retrieve a Bren gun. He used it to charge down and kill what was left of the enemy. When I decided to look up Lance Corporal Limbu a few years ago, it was a simple matter to find him – I just went to his...

A Gurkha awarded the highest military award for gallantry in the face of the enemy was at the forefront of a demonstration today to promote the rights of more than 2,000 of the soldiers to stay in Britain. Tul Bahadur Pun VC, 87, a Second World War veteran who is now in a wheelchair, delivered a boardful of medals, including an MBE, to Downing Street in protest over the treatment of Gurkha soldiers. A London hospital refused to treat him for his heart condition, claiming he owed thousands of pounds in unpaid medical bills.

They came in their Sunday best — a sea of tweeds, brogues and blazers with gold buttons — and mingled politely opposite the Houses of Parliament. There was a lot of hip-hooraying and handshaking. It was the most British of protests. But while the thousand retired Gurkhas who gathered in London yesterday were certainly British in heart and mind, theirs was a campaign to become British by law. Last March, the Government said that all the Army’s Nepalese fighters who retired after 1997 would be entitled to pay and pension equal with the rest of the Army and would be...

Havildar Bhanbhagta Gurung, VC Gurkha who was decorated for his courage and skill in capturing a Japanese position in fierce hand-to-hand fighting Havildar Bhanbhagta Gurung, VC Bhanbhagta Gurung won his Victoria Cross in Burma in 1945. His action was the culmination of a series of extraordinarily gallant actions by this soldier of quite exceptional courage, yet it occurred while he was in disgrace, albeit unjustly. Born in the hill village of Phalbu in western Nepal, he was recruited into the old Indian Army soon after the outbreak of the Second World War, and joined 3rd Battalion 2nd King Edward VII’s...

Bhanubhakta Gurung, VC Last Updated: 2:37am GMT 04/03/2008 Havildar Bhanubhakta Gurung, who has died aged 86, was awarded a VC when serving as a rifleman in the 3rd Battalion of the 2nd Gurkha Rifles in Burma on March 5 1945. At that time the Fourteenth Army was making a drive toward Mandalay in central Burma, and the task of the 25th Division (of which the 2nd Gurkhas were part) was to engage in diversionary action along the coastal sector of Arakan. The 3rd Battalion landed at Ru-Ywa and advanced to the high ground east of Tamandu. Capturing the area would...

Ghurkhas Train with U.S. Soldiers in India Dec 03, 2007 BY Staff Sgt. Matthew MacRoberts CHAUBATTIA, India (Army News Service, Dec. 3, 2007) – More than 120 U.S. Soldiers trained in the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains with their Indian counterparts during Exercise Yudh Abhyas in November, building on existing skills and sharing tactics. Participation of the 25th Infantry Division Soldiers from Fort Wainwright, Alaska, in the exercise demonstrates the command’s ability to deploy as the northwest power projection platform, officials said. The C Company “Gimlets,”3/ 21st Infantry, spent about a week training in a cantonment area before relocating and...

It is with deep regret that the Ministry of Defence must confirm that a soldier serving with 1st Battalion The Royal Gurkha Rifles was killed and two others injured yesterday, Thursday 4 October 2007, in southern Afghanistan. Ministry of Defence Elements of the battalion were returning to their base at Kandahar airfield after taking part in Operation PALK WAHEL, when a vehicle they were travelling in was caught in an explosion approximately 30 km west of Kandahar. The casualties were evacuated by helicopter to the ISAF medical facility at Camp Bastion. Sadly one of the soldiers was pronounced dead on...

KATHMANDU: Britain's Prince Harry has joined one of the most fearsome units in the British Army the Gurkhas and is undergoing intensive training with the legendary brigade. The prince, 22, who is currently serving as an officer in the posh cavalry regiment, the Blues and Royals, is taking part in intensive training with the legendary unit to improve his fighting skills. He is reportedly undergoing a four-day exercise with the 3rd Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles in the Brecon Beacons, Wales. At the end of the exercise, Harry, a 2nd lieutenant whose own unit has gone to Iraq without him because...

A former Gurkha who won the Victoria Cross has told of his joy at being given the right to live in the UK. Tul Bahadur Pun, 84, who wanted to move from Nepal for medical reasons, promised to be a "credit" to Britain and expressed "deep gratitude". He was initially told he did not have enough British ties to move but was eventually granted a visa because his case was "exceptional". Former Rifleman Mr Pun was awarded his medal for World War II action in Burma.

Indian, US armies begin joint exercises in HawaiiIndo-Asian News ServiceSeptember 6, 2006 The Indian Army began its largest joint exercise on foreign soil on Wednesday with 140 officers and soldiers joining their US counterparts in honing their counter-insurgency skills at the Schofield Army Base barracks in Hawaii.'Operation Yudh Abhyas (preparing for war)' will run till September 23, a US embassy official said.It follows a similar exercise held at Chaubhatia near Ranikhet in Uttaranchal in January.During the 18-day exercise, the Indian troops, drawn from the Gurkha Regiment, will test their interoperability with forces from the US 25 Infantry Division in face-to-face...

It can stop a bullet from an AK-47, shrug off a roadside bomb, and it makes a Hummer look like a chick car. The $200,000 (U.S.) Gurkha is coming to a road near you — thanks to a King City-based company that is finding itself in demand because of the global war on terror. "They are pretty awesome machines," says William Whyte, owner of Armet Armored Vehicles Inc., the company that builds the Gurkha. "We've been stopped on roads with people taking pictures and wanting to know what they are." The Gurkha can go more than 150 kilometres per hour...

weapons training Pushups the Gorkha way Celebrating the end of training the Gorkha way by cutting the neck of a goat in one stroke Soldier paying tribute to his comrades killed in battle in Kashmir insurgency Soldier going through the punishment drill for failing to meet the exacting standards set by the Gorkhas during training Soldier sharpning his khukri, Gorkha knife Gorkha commandoes fighting no holds barred full contact karate Soldier singing cadence going through the drill Giving the Gorkha war shout Soldier being trained in rappelling for mountain warfare Soldier training on the obstacle course come rain or shine...

The latest gotta-have-it celebrity accessory may be exotic bodyguards. We're not talking muscle-bound men in black or former Green Berets. For this detail, only Gurkhas will do. The Nepalese soldiers are famed for their valor, loyalty and discretion. Gurkha units served with distinction in both world wars, as well as the 1982 Falklands dust-up and the 1991 Persian Gulf conflict. Gurkhas also work security details for cruise lines, businessmen, potentates and the coalition in Iraq.

Al-Qaeda spies in UK Threat ... Guards in London     By TOM NEWTON DUNN Defence EditorAL-Qaeda agents are spying on UK military bases to plan a terror spectacular, military chiefs have warned. A leaked secret report — seen by The Sun — reveals men of Middle Eastern appearance have been seen near several sites in the past two months. Troops are on their second highest level of security alert amid fears of a revenge attack for Britain’s role in Iraq. Guards and cavalry barracks in Central London are thought to be at high risk. Suspect activity has also...

KATHMANDU - Anyone going through literature put out by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) will understand that the ultimate aim of the "People's War", launched in early 1996, is to convert the Himalayan kingdom into a state run by the believers of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. Their Internet web site places Prachanda, their supremo who goes with one name, on a par with Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong. And the Nepali expression of the "Prachanda Path" is made to appear comparable to the Shining Path movement in Peru. Baburam Bhattarai, one of the leader's right-hand men, used to cite the...

Abducted British official a Brigadier General A British official abducted by the Maoists from Baglung on Monday was a senior official named John Paul, a Brigadier General of the British army, published reports said Tuesday. The Kathmandu-based British embassy Monday confirmed the abduction of the official on Monday. Along with Paul, four more officials have gone missing. Of them, three were British Gurkha officials. They have been identified as Nar Bahadur Thapa, Balkrishna Gurung and Karna Bahadur Kaucha. The name of the fifth abducted official was not known. The actual place where the abduction took place was Lekhani village in...

Lt Colonel collins of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Irish has been promoted to full colonel a reminder of his words __________ We go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country," "We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them. If you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory "There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go...