The IAF's special forces unit, its disputed origins, its training at Chandinagar and the Ashok Chakra awarded to Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala.
Chanderger, 18 November 2017
On 18 November 2017 a Garud detachment and 13 Rashtriya Rifles launched an operation in Chanderger village, Bandipora district. The Garuds laid a close-quarter ambush around a house. Corporal Jyoti Prakash Nirala, a specialist weapon operator, placed himself near the approach to the hideout.
Six terrorists rushed out, firing and throwing grenades. According to his citation, Nirala killed two and injured two more, then was hit by a volley of fire. He kept firing until he died of his wounds. The Tribune reported that all six were killed.
President Ram Nath Kovind conferred the Ashok Chakra posthumously at the Republic Day Parade on 26 January 2018. Nirala's wife, Sushma Nand, and his mother, Malti Singh, received it.
Two accounts of the beginning
The published origins do not agree. SP's Aviation records plans in early 2002 for a force first called Tiger Force, government authorisation of 1,080 men in 2003, and the formal start of the Garud Force on 6 February 2004 in Delhi, when 62 of the first 100 volunteers completed the course. It says the Garuds first appeared in public on Air Force Day that year.
Ajai Shukla, writing in Business Standard in 2017, dates the idea to September 2004, after Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnaswamy visited Israel and saw its air force special forces unit, Shaldag.
Their stated tasks include protection of air force installations, counter-terrorism, hostage rescue and help during natural calamities. A Maroon Beret Ceremonial Parade at the Garud Regimental Training Centre, Air Force Station Chandinagar in Uttar Pradesh, marks the completion of training.
Three deaths before Chanderger
Corporal Gursewak Singh was the first Garud to fall to terrorist fire, in January 2016, defending the Pathankot air base.
On 11 October 2017 Sergeant Milind Kishor and Corporal Nilesh Kumar Nayan died in Hajin village, north Kashmir. Shukla reported them as the first Garud fatalities in counter-insurgency operations in Jammu and Kashmir. They were operating with 13 Rashtriya Rifles, the battalion to which Nirala was attached 38 days later.
Cover image: Indian Air Force, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized for this page. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Garud_Commandos_at_Vayu_Shakti_2019.jpg