Khukris Don’t Kill People. Badasses Do.

One armed guy can make a huge difference.

In this case the “armed guy” was Bishnu Shrestha, a retired Gurkha soldier – a Nepalese soldier serving in either the British or, in this case, Indian army – and his “Khukri”, the iconic short sword of the Gurkha soldier.  A group of forty bandits waylaid a train in a remote jungle area, and started shaking down the passengers and, finally, trying to rape one of them:

The band of about 40 robbers, some of whom were traveling 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.

Shrestha

“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.

Khukri

“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.

Informed of the incident, Janet Napolitano promptly added Shrestha to her watch list of “potential terrorists” (until told that he wasn’t actually an American citizen), and Jerry Nadler decried the “vitriol” in the conversation between people and bandits in India.

Shreshta, on the other hand, is being feted:

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.

Of course, he’s a highly-trained member of an elite infantry regiment; don’t try this at home, as they say.

But to cite the old Hindu saying – Vishnu made man; Kholt made men equal.

At least I think that’s the Hindi spelling of Colt…

(Via my neighbor Pete)

7 thoughts on “Khukris Don’t Kill People. Badasses Do.

  1. Train travel in India is a great experience — bandit attacks excepted, of course.

    Here’s a link that shows the layout of the various coaches.

    http://www.seat61.com/India.htm#classes

    Third class AC would present a reasonable place from which to launch a counter-attack, assuming that one was on the 6-berth side.

    I’m looking forward to the movie.

  2. Yup!

    Ya’ have to be the meanest SOB in the valley to take on that many banditos! Good on Bishnu Shretha for getting involved! May he continue to kick ass and take names!

  3. This guy’s my hero. His picture should be on every classroom wall. “Want to know what a man is like, boys? This is a man!”

  4. Stories about a hero are always uplifting! The passengers had the good fortune of being in the company of a determined sheepdog.

  5. Always good to hear a story with a happy ending!

    That said, if Lars were teaching and put this guy’s picture and story up on the classroom wall, it would be highly entertaining to watch as the boys processed how the Gurkha had his sword on the train, and they couldn’t even have a KFC spork in the classroom.

  6. Minor point – Shrestha was from one of the Indian Army’s Gorkha regiments. They spell it differently in Hindi, I guess; in any case, after partition when the Brits and the Indians divvied up their Nepalese mercenaries, the Indians renamed their six regiments Gorkhas. IIRC, most of the Gorkha troops in the Indian Army come from around Darjeeling in India and not from Nepal any more, not that it matters. Same badass soldiers.

  7. He carried his favored weapon in public and protected the innocent.Good on him!
    The very same reason I carry a Kimber Polymer Pro Carry .45 loaded with 10 230 gr .45ACP hollow point rounds. And a spare clip of the same ammo.
    Just saying.
    And Gurkha’s ARE bad ass and fearless soldiers. Have been for some time.

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