Bengaluru: Former army man turned journalist Sushant Sigh’s book “Mission Overseas: Daring Operations by the Indian Military” tries to bring out the untold stories related to Indian army’s outings in Maldives, Sierra Leone and Sri Lanka.
Singh, who was part of the UN Peacekeeping operations in Africa in the 1990s, dwells upon Operation Khukri that took place in Sierra Leone in 2000, to rescue the 200 Indian soldiers from rebels.
Though the operation managed to get Indian soldiers out alive, with the exception of one, the incident did raise questions about the level of involvement the Indian army should have in overseas operations, he said. “After this operation, India started saying ‘no’ to fighting under the UN umbrella.
The book also touches upon details of Operation Cactus conducted in Maldives in 1998 to prevent a coup against the then president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka.
“The army went in without the latest maps into Maldives. They were given coffee table maps, that dated back to Second World War,” he said.
He also revealed that during Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka the much criticized heli-borne attack in Jaffna University happened because Indian army was ill-equipped and 29 soldiers died in the attack.
He felt the mission did not get the credit they deserved. It was the political scenario at the time. Rajiv Gandhi was losing his appeal and the economy was also down. “Everything that could possibly go wrong was going wrong,” he said. The book was launched at Rangoli Metro Art Centre in the city on Thursday.
