Tribute to a gallant officer

Having been transferred to Srinagar from CRPF’s Internal Security Academy in Mount Abu, I landed in the city on October 2, 2006, and took charge as DIG (Operations) in Karan Nagar the following day.

Even before I could settle down, I was informed by my staff officer that intensive firing was going on between the combined CRPF-Kashmir police and the terrorists at the Standard Hotel in the heart of the city. That was on October 4. 

Along with my staff officer, I rushed to the area, which was not far from my office. Since the exchange of fire was on, we positioned ourselves at a distance from the spot of encounter. We were soon joined by another officer, RSHS Sahota, a commandant who was on medical leave for an eye ailment. The area was not under my jurisdiction, yet we remained in cordon. Another DIG under whose jurisdiction the area fell was on one of the floors of the hotel, along with senior Kashmir police officials directing the operations. I could sense the impatience in Sahota to join the operations. He was itching to jump into the fray. I could sense the fire in his belly. But the discipline of the Force got the better of him, and he reconciled to the situation. 

Known as a dare devil, Sahota was on the prowl for opportunities to take on the militants in any part of the country. For his derring-do in an operation against militants in Kalowal village of Majitha in July 1992, he was awarded the Police Medal for Gallantry. In yet another operation in Nowgaon district (Assam), he determinedly chased an insurgent crossing a river and shot him dead, undaunted by the grenades lobbed at him by the insurgent. He was honoured with a Bar to the Police Medal for Gallantry.  

For his “exceptional leadership and managerial skill” as commander of the CRPF contingent in the UN Mission at Port-Au-Prince, Haiti, in 1995, he was awarded the Army Commendation Medal by the US Army Commander. 

The gallant officer passed away at his Mohali residence on September 30. He retired as DIG in 2010. On his passing away, the former Director General of CRPF, Vijay Kumar, wrote, “Within days of my joining the great force, CRPF, I wanted to visit Chintalnar, where sometime back 75 CRPF jawans and a state police jawan had been ambushed. I watched Mr Sahota quickly briefing the teams in the most professional way, and by midnight we reached and sat near the very spot in the ambush—although a symbolic one, as to me, it was a pilgrimage of sorts—and then we returned. Sahota’s is a saga of brave and reckless acts that teemed with leadership of the most courageous nature. He exemplified the adage, “Troops adore a general whose shoes are muddied.” 

Rest in peace, dear Sahota.