New Delhi, Dec. 31 -- On their way to Phillora, a group of three vehicles and six enemy tanks were contacted at around 1900 hours. Everyone was taken aback. 9 Frontier Force's commanding officer drove a vehicle to lead the convoy. Subedar Mukhtiar Singh of A Company pulled over the car.
In the pandemonium that ensued, the officer fled by jumping into a field of sugarcane. The driver and the jeep were taken into custody. In the meanwhile, fire had begun. The enemy was aided by the darkness and shot indiscriminately with machine guns and high explosive rounds as they ran away. This firefight cost the enemy eighteen men. Around 2015 hrs, a second group of five or six tanks came up the same way and began firing into the battalion area.
Near...