Cheating Death - Blood & Gore {Guest Post}

This is the fourth tale from the series Cheating Death by Lt Col Yogesh Joshi (Retd). He has Served Indian Army for 20 years and has varied experiences in different difficult terrains in "counter insurgency" operations. Post retirement, he is now Chief Of Security, at Infosys Pune. 

In today's post he shares a tale of Blood & Gore. So read with caution!

For Cheating Death - Part 1 Click Here, for Part 2 Click Here and for Part 3 Click Here
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During the 20 years that I have served in the Army, I have seen enough blood to last me a lifetime and more. To the extent that it has stopped affecting me in any way. Just last month I was travelling one afternoon on Bhoomkar Road, Pune. I saw that a motorcycle had met with an accident with a dumper. The rider looked like a labour and his body was lying on the road with his head cut open and the brains scattered on the road. 

I could look at it without any emotion other than pity and pass on since the police were already on the scene and there was nothing that I could have contributed. Later that evening, I got thinking as to why I did not feel any aversion or nausea at the sight. Upon reflecting well on this thread, I concluded that this was nothing new to me. 

So let me tell you some incidents that I have encountered. But before we begin, my apologies and a caution to proceed only if you can take it...

In the 90s, I was posted in Manipur. The inter tribe war between the Nagas and Kukis had flared up to the extent that daily we had one tribe attacking other tribe’s village and burning it down. The NSCN (Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland) and KNA, KNF (Kuki National Army and Front) – both insurgent groups of their respective tribes had also joined the fray making it one of the most bloody era in history of that state.

I was the second in command of a post called Moltuk in Chandel District. It is in the interior of the state, near Myanmar border, in Kuki area with Naga villages also nearby. The villagers used to guard the village with available 12 bore guns in the night. The days used to be spent in farming and other livelihood by them. One day the village chairman invited the company commander for lunch. This voiced my suspicion. I pointed the fact to the company commander that we had been there for a year now, then why is this chap calling us today, suddenly? So we kept 10-15 jawans QRT ready. I went in my uniform with my Carbine and the company commander in civil dress. Sure enough, while having lunch, one of our observation post reported seeing smoke from Village Prolon and Challong- both Naga villages. 

I immediately called the QRT and rushed to the spot. What I saw was chilling. The village had been completely burnt down. The road was strewn with the corpses of people I knew well, with their stomachs split open with Dahs. The intestines were arranged on the road to read NSCN. The complete stretch of about 200 meters of road was in blood and slush. In the village, there were charred bodies of women and small infants in the burnt down houses. 

That was my first encounter with Blood and Gore!!!

Will stop for a while and await your views. Will be posting a few more of such incidences in the next post. Till then Jai Hind.