OT: This is Bad-Ass

[boogiedowndonovan]

This is Bad-Ass.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2663935/posts

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.

[TiggerCCW UK]

I want him on my team!

[sglancy12]

Pretty much makes Segal in Under Siege 2 look like a complete pussy... in case he didn't already look like a complete pussy.

A. Scott Glancy, President TCCorp

[mikeo80]

I read somewhere that in the Falklands campaign, the Brits used the Gurkas as LRP's. If the Argentines heard the Gurkas were in the area, surrender soon followed.

Don't know if true or legend.....

BUT, it does fit the Gurka tradition for ferocity...

Mike

[TiggerCCW UK]

To the best of my knowledge they were the only regiment (or certainly one of only a few regiments) never deplyed to Northern Ireland. Shame really - I reckon they'd have cleared things here up a bit quicker....

[Grimace]

Pretty awesome guy! Kickin' ass!

[Panther Al]

You know, every time I read about them, I think, "Man, they can't be that good..." and then I read something new and go, "Man, they are..." And it goes over and over. But after reading that, yeah, They make Chuck Norris look like a little 8 year old nerd stuck in his D&D books.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by mikeo80

I read somewhere that in the Falklands campaign, the Brits used the Gurkas as LRP's. If the Argentines heard the Gurkas were in the area, surrender soon followed.

Don't know if true or legend.....

BUT, it does fit the Gurka tradition for ferocity...

Mike

I've read something fairly similar to that. If memory serves the story was that Argentine propaganda scored a bit of an own goal when it came to the Gurkhas.

IIRC the story originated when Soldier Magazine (the British Army's magazine) published a picture of Gurkhas on excercise sharpening their kukris prior to deploying to the Falklands. The pictures were republished by the Argentines who did such a good job of portraying the Gurkhas as being some sort of blood thirsty savages / mercenaries that their own troops were terrified of them.

Originally Posted by TiggerCCW UK

To the best of my knowledge they were the only regiment (or certainly one of only a few regiments) never deplyed to Northern Ireland. Shame really - I reckon they'd have cleared things here up a bit quicker....

Going OT here, I seem to recall hearing that in the early days of the Troubles Irish units / soldiers were barred from serving in Ulster? Was that actually the case?

[pmulcahy11b]

Ahh, when your own propaganda backfires...

[HorseSoldier]

" . . . and a bayonet, with some guts behind it" sort of stuff.

[Targan]

One of my favourite PCs in my last campaign was a Gurkha Sgt Major named Tenzin Gurung. The player had done some research on Nepali mountain tribes and had heard that the Gurung tribe were notoriously fierce warriors, and he played the character as such. He did some wildly brave and crazy sh*t during the campaign. Terrifying little guy. During the mission to plant a backpack tac nuke in the WarPac Reserve Front HQ in Lublin Gurung snuck into an enemy observation post and silently decapitated a sentry with his heirloom kukhri knife. Well almost decapitated, he severed the spine and the head flopped forward, still attached to the neck stump by some flesh. Awesome.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

Going OT here, I seem to recall hearing that in the early days of the Troubles Irish units / soldiers were barred from serving in Ulster? Was that actually the case?

Not sure of the entire policy on it, the troubles started before I was born, but from what I know I think they limited Irish units deployments in the early days, and they attempted to avoid deploying troops in their home areas, where possible. How rigidly this was maintained is anyones guess.

[Snake Eyes]

Player in OP is clearly an attention-whoring munchkin who cheated during character generation.