Sewa Singh - Subedar Who Defused Pakistani Bombs With Bare Hands During 1971 War

Defusing unfamiliar airdropped Pakistani bombs with bare hands is the long-lasting memory of retired Subedar Sewa Singh at 92 of how he won the ¡®Shaurya Chakra¡¯ for bravery, as per TNN. He was part of the bomb disposal platoon of the Army¡¯s Bombay Engineer Group at Kirkee, Pune.

During the 1971 war, Pakistan airdropped many bombs at Zira village, Punjab, six of which did not explode and one landed on a pile of grain sacks in a Food Corporation of India (FCI) warehouse. These bombs were a threat. Despite a hearing problem, unclear speech, and difficulty in walking, Subedar Sewa Singh remembers it like it was yesterday.

The former bomb squad man said: ¡°The task of our unit was made difficult by those Pakistani bombs, which were either defective or had attached timer to which we were unfamiliar. Between December 3 and 17, the Pakistanis must have dropped almost 1,000 pounds of those over civilian and military targets in border areas of Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Many of these British or US-made bombs, a few even carrying the mark of Pakistan's ordnance factory, did not explode.¡± Sewa Singh¡¯s platoon was called to defuse those.

BCCI

Asked about the risk, the subedar said: ¡°I was assigned to defuse the Zira bombs and save the FCI godown near Ferozepur. By the grace of God, I could do my task without fear. I thought nothing of my life against the lives of many. We had a blessed, skillful, and successful team, and I alone defused five of those Ferozepur bombs barehanded and without any protective suit.¡±

Asked why so many Pakistani bombs had failed, the subedar said: ¡°Maybe the Pakistanis resorted to panic bombing and used ordinance that wasn¡¯t primed. Often it had wrong fusing and they ignored the time factor while dropping those. Besides, many of those bombs were of World War II vintage with worn-out fuses and detonation devices.¡±

On December 24, 1971, the then Indian president, Varahagiri Venkata (VV) Giri, honoured Sewa Singh with'Shaurya Chakra¡± for gallantry and the soldier also got a chance to stay with his family at the President¡¯s house. Seeing those photographs with the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi, and the then defence minister, Jagjivan Ram, activates his memory.

The citation dated August 7, 1974, and written by Govind Narain, the then secretary in the Ministry of Defence, reads: ¡°Subedar Sewa Singh was given the task of disposing of five unexploded enemy bombs on the premises of the FCI at Zeera village near Ferozepur.

The fuse and the bomb mechanism were of a new type, and they had no training in neutralising it or special body armour, equipment, and stores to do the job. Undeterred, subedar Sewa Singh, at grave risk to personal safety, decided to extract the fuses manually, with his own hands. His courage, determination, and professional skill are commendable.¡±

About the power of the dropped bombs, Sewa Singh said: ¡°Those could pierce a tank¡¯s armour plate.¡± On December 24, 1971, the then chief of Army staff and later field marshal, General SHFJ Manekshaw, had also congratulated subedar Sewa Singh in written on the receipt of ¡°well-merited award of Shaurya Chakra¡±. The subedar had also seen the 1962 Burma aggression and the 1965 war with Pakistan.

BCCL

Subedar Sewa Singh deposited his Shaurya Chakra at his Bombay Engineer Group unit at Kirkee, Pune, for its better preservation and serving as motivation to young recruits of the Army.

Sewa Singh was a skilful forward-line hockey player for the Services. Born in April 1929 at Shahzadpur village of Ambala district, he took his primary education there, and at 18 years, joined the Army in 1947, where he completed the education of ¡°Army Special¡± with first division. Kirkee was his first posting and Siliguri in West Bengal last in 1975. The medal brings him a yearly benefit and a monthly pension.

Sewa Singh's grandfather, Gopal Singh, also retired as subedar, and his father, Piara Singh, as Sepoy, both from the British Indian Army. Sewa Singh had three sons. Two served in the Navy, Dilbagh Singh retired as a petty officer, while diver Bhupinder Singh died at sea, while on duty. Sewa Singh lives in Ambala Cantonment with his son, Balwinder Singh, who runs a small business of cleaning material. He has a graduate unemployed son, Deepak Singh, who assists him in the business.

Sewa Singh¡¯s son, Balwinder Singh, requested the government to allot some agricultural or commercial land to the family so that it¡¯s able to till or run a shop for steady income.