AFGHANISTAN, DEC 05 - For the third time that afternoon, the British military convoy headed towards Lashkar Gah from Camp Bastion had come to a complete halt. A powerful improvised explosive device planted by the Taliban had destroyed a pickup truck carrying members of the Afghan National Police earlier that morning, leaving a giant crater in the middle of the highway. Right off the shoulder on the highway, laid a second bundle of explosives that had not yet detonated.

“Nowhere else could living by the moment hold more weight that here in Helmand,” said Hari Rai, a signalman with the 2 Royal Gurkha Rifles, as the members of the British convoy waited for the IED squad to come and control-detonate the explosives that remained at the roadside. “It’s not the bullets that we have to dodge anymore; it is these ambushes.”

Rai and many other young Gurkhas are part of the British forces, which deployed in Helmand province after the NATO, primarily British, contingent replaced the American troops in the southern province following a major military operation in 2006. Helmand, one of the biggest opium-producing regions in the world, has become notorious for some of the fiercest battles between the Taliban and NATO forces. With U.S. President Barack Obama’s announcement to deploy an additional 30,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, major offensives are anticipated in Helmand, where the insurgents are entrenched in every inch.

The Gurkhas, who are lauded for their bravery and loyalty on and off the battlefield, play a crucial role in the war against the Taliban. Last month, at least 100 Gurkha soldiers returned to the U.K. from Afghanistan. Here in Helmand, where the British forces often come in contact with the Taliban, the Gurkhas have a challenging task of building robust relationships with the Afghan security forces and local Afghan people. And unlike the soldiers from any other countries, who are fighting in Afghanistan, the British Gurkhas do it with much ease—they share a language and the culture that is close to that of the Afghans in many ways.

Only in Helmand, might one see the Gurkhas and the Afghan policemen slaughter a goat and prepare their dinner after a long day of battle. Listening to old Bollywood songs on the radio, the Gurkhas often get into arguments with the Afghans regarding issues that range anywhere from Taliban’s methods of warfare to the stardom of Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan. The closeness between these two groups has often helped the British soldiers get quicker access to valuable information, some of which have valuable intelligence, according to British officers. 

But some of the successes the Gurkhas have had in Afghanistan have come with tragic consequences. Since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan, three Nepali men serving in the British Gurkhas have lost their lives. Last year in May, Rifleman Yubraj Rai, 28, from Khotang district, became the first Gurkha to die in Afghanistan after getting shot by the Taliban. Last November, Colour Sergeant Krishna Dura, a native of Lamjung, who had served in the British army for 16 years, was killed in a bomb blast in Musa Qala district. And this past May, Corporal Kumar Pun, 31, who hailed from Parbat, was killed after a suicide bomber blew himself up in the town of Gereskh in Helmand province.

Two months after Pun’s death, when this reporter was embedded with the Gurkhas from Foxtrot Company in Lashkar Gah, some of the young men who were still shaken from the incident remembered Pun as an elder brother to them. Inside the massive tent at their base in Lashkar Gah, a photo of Pun sat next to a line of idols and images of Hindu gods, where most of the Gurkhas worshipped before heading out for routine patrols and any major military operations.

Historically, Afghanistan is not a new place for Nepali Gurkhas—the Gurkhas have fought here for the British during the Third Afghan War in 1919 and then later in the battle along the Northwest Frontier during early 1920s—but the nature of this war, as some Gurkhas put it, makes this operation one of the hardest ones they have ever been involved in. Many Gurkhas, who have served in places like Kosovo and Iraq, admit that the mission in Afghanistan is a challenging one. But when it comes to opinions about the politics of the war, those are something the Gurkhas will not talk about.

For these young men, who joined the British Gurkhas either following on the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers or to fulfill their dreams of having a better life, getting the man next to you back home safely is the biggest goal in Afghanistan, as a young rifleman put it.

Back in June, when Hari Rai was still patrolling the bazaars in Lashkar Gah, he said he wished for nothing more than the moment when he could hold his newborn daughter in his hands. “I have months and months of bullets and IEDs to dodge before I can see my wife and my daughter,” he said.

Last month, Rai returned home from Afghanistan after a six month-long duty to reunite with his wife and his five-month old daughter Rhasee. British newspapers called his return ‘one of the most touching reunions’ as photographs of Rai kissing his daughter made the pages of major national dailies.

But Rai’s homecoming was marked by irony. Five days after his return to England, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced his commitment to sending 500 additional troops, which will bring the total number of British troops in Afghanistan to 10,000. With no end in sight to the war at least anytime soon, the Gurkhas are in the Taliban heartland for an unmistakably long haul.

Kaphle works as an editor and producer at Washington Post Digital. He was embedded with the Gurkhas in June/July 2009.

 

Posted on: 2009-12-05 08:53

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