Lone Nepali Gorkha who subdued 40 train robbers

Republica [Nepal] ^ | 2011-01-13 04:00:00 | MANOJ ADHIKARI/SANTOSH POKHAREL

[archy]

Lone Nepali Gorkha who subdued 40 train robbers

MANOJ ADHIKARI/SANTOSH POKHAREL

POKHARA, Jan 13: Gorkha soldiers have long been known the world over for their valor and these khukuri-wielding warriors winning the British many a battle have become folklore.

A retired Indian Gorkha soldier recently revisited those glory days when he thwarted 40 robbers, killing three of them and injuring eight others, with his khukuri during a train journey. He is in line to receive three gallantry awards from the Indian government.

Slave girl Morgiana in the Arabian Nights used her cunning to finish off Ali Baba´s 40 thieves, but Bishnu Shrestha of Baidam, Pokhara-6 did not have time to plot against the 40 train robbers. He, however, made good use of his khukuri to save the chastity of a girl and hundreds of thousands in loot.

Shrestha, who was in the Maurya Express to Gorakhpur from Ranchi on September 2 while returning home following voluntary retirement from the Indian army--saved the girl who was going to be raped by the robbers in front of her hapless parents, and in doing so won plaudits from everybody.

The Indian government is to decorate Shrestha with its Sourya Chakra, Bravery Award and Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha Medal and the 35-year-old is leaving for India Saturday to receive the first of the awards on the occasion of India´s Republic Day on January 26.

“The formal announcement of the awards will be made on Republic Day and on Independence Day on August 15,” said Shrestha, whose father Gopal Babu also retired from the same 7/8 Platoon of the Gorkha Regiment around 29 years ago.

His regiment has already given him a cash award of Indian rupees 50,000, and decided to terminate his voluntary retirement. He will get the customary promotion after receiving the medals. The Indian government will also announce a cash bounty for him and special discounts on international air tickets and domestic train tickets.

The band of about 40 robbers, some of whom were travelling as passengers, stopped the train in the Chittaranjan jungles in West Bengal around midnight. Shrestha-- who had boarded the train at Ranchi in Jharkhand, the place of his posting--was in seat no. 47 in coach AC3.

“They started snatching jewelry, cell phones, cash, laptops and other belongings from the passengers,” Shrestha recalled. The soldier had somehow remained a silent spectator amidst the melee, but not for long. He had had enough when the robbers stripped an 18-year-old girl sitting next to him and tried to rape her right in front of her parents. He then took out his khukuri and took on the robbers.

“The girl cried for help, saying ´You are a soldier, please save a sister´,” Shrestha recalled. “I prevented her from being raped, thinking of her as my own sister,” he added. He took one of the robbers under control and then started to attack the others. He said the rest of the robbers fled after he killed three of them with his khukuri and injured eight others.

During the scuffle he received serious blade injury to his left hand while the girl also had a minor cut on her neck. “They had carried out their robbery with swords, blades and pistols. The pistols may have been fake as they didn´t open fire,” he surmised.

The train resumed its journey after some 20 minutes and a horde of media persons and police were present when it reached Chittaranja station. Police arrested the eight injured dacoits and recovered around 400,000 Indian rupees in cash, 40 gold necklaces, 200 cell phones, 40 laptops and other items that the fleeing robbers dropped in the train.

Police escorted Shrestha to the Railways Hospital after the rescued girl told them about his heroic deed. Mainstream Indian media carried the story. The parents of the girl, who was going for her MBBS studies, also announced a cash award of Indian rupees 300,000 for him but he has not met them since.

“Even the veins and arteries in my left hand were slit but the injury has now healed after two months of neurological treatment at the Command Hospital in Kolkata,” he said showing the scar. “Fighting the enemy in battle is my duty as a soldier; taking on the dacoits in the train was my duty as a human being,” said the Indian army nayak, who has been given two guards during his month-long holidays in Nepal.

“I am proud to be able to prove that a Gorkha soldier with a khukuri is really a handful. I would have been a meek spectator had I not carried that khukuri,” he said.

He still finds it hard to believe that he took on 40 armed robbers alone. “They may have feared that more of my army friends were traveling with me and fled after fighting me for around 20 minutes,” he explained.

[archy]

During the Falklands the Ghurkas went out each night and decapitated a few solders in their foxholes. Pretty soon the Argentine soldiers flat out refused to do outpost duty at night, and the Brits could move about at will in the dark.

Not quite. The Argentines own propaganda bit them in the a$$. They had portrayed the Gurkhas serving in the British Army as being savage cannibals, in hopes that the Argie conscript troops would eliminate them without mercy. Instead they were terrified at the prospect of close-quarters combat with the Gurkhas, and when the Ghurkhas of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Gurkha Rifles finally moved in on the Argentine positions at , the young Argentine troops surrendered. Smart move.

One Gurkha was killed during the Falklands, a rifleman whose field spade set off an unexploded hand hrenade while digging a fighting position after the fighting was over. The Argentines lost 648 of their men.

[Ax]

When will this guy get the Victoria Cross?

[archy]

The Gurkha Regiment of the British Army has a fearsome reputation that is well deserved. They are currently fighting in Afghanistan.

Indeed, less one of their number who managed to get himself in a spot of bother.

[Cicero]

Great story. Amazing.

[archy]

When will this guy get the Victoria Cross?

Never. He's in the service of the Army of India, not Great Britain. The current Maoist Nepali government is working to end British recruitment in Nepal.

[NonValueAdded]

They should make him an Honorary Texas Ranger. one riot; one ranger

[Teflonic]

He still finds it hard to believe that he took on 40 armed robbers alone. “They may have feared that more of my army friends were traveling with me and fled after fighting me for around 20 minutes,” he explained.

You have to know he went into that fight fully expecting to die rather than have that girl raped in front of him. For his skill and fitness to have carried him alive through a 20 minute fight against an armed mob is incredible! Wish there were a video of the fight but I'm sure Bollywood has a movie in the works already.

[archy]

They should make him an Honorary Texas Ranger

We should make him a Border Patrolman.

Him and about 20,000 of his pals.

[NonValueAdded]

I don’t think you’d need that many.

[JRandomFreeper]

Wouldn't mind having a few Montagnards as well.

/johnny

[tbd108]

I’ve seen these people sitting by themselves guarding hotels in India. They are considered so dangerous that only one is needed to do the trick. Also, it is known that if one is attacked, the Gorkhas from a hundred miles around come quickly looking for who it was that was fool enough to go after their own.

[Last Dakotan]

Wish there were a video of the fight but I'm sure Bollywood has a movie in the works already.

Starring Chuck Norris!

[Redbob]

"I don’t think you’d need that many.

Maybe not, but we'd find a good use for the 19,000 left over!
LOL!

[heartwood]

Good chance the bandits were communist terrorists, in Nepal.

[Redcloak]

Think of all the loot they could have walked off with had they just left that one girl alone.

[archy]

Wouldn't mind having a few Montagnards as well.
/johnny

Nungs.

[archy]

Good chance the bandits were communist terrorists, in Nepal.

Concur.

[archy]

You have to know he went into that fight fully expecting to die rather than have that girl raped in front of him.

You'll hear them say Better to die than be a coward.

They live by it.

[piytar]

Thought you’d appreciate this thread, Comedian...

[Texas Fossil]

It is never drawn that is does not taste blood.