My Father Shot Dead 12 Rebels Before He Got Killed, Lt Col Mahipal Sin

[Spartan]

Had it not been for the month-long extension of his tenure in Sudan, [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/Lieutenant-Colonel"]Lieutenant Colonel[/url] Mahipal Singh could perhaps have still been alive. According to his family members, his term with the [url="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/UN-peacekeeping-force"]UN peacekeeping force[/url] in the African continent got over on April 5 but was extended by a month. In fact they all were waiting to meet him when he was to eventually come back in May.

Singh, along with four other soldiers, was killed on Tuesday when the UN convoy they were escorting came under fire from rebels.

According to them, his colleagues who were part of the convoy that got ambushed narrated to the family how just last week they and the 51-year-old Singh had survived another ambush.

Singh's 21-year-old son, R S Pilani, struggled as he recalled what he had learnt about his father's valour. "Some of my father's colleagues who arrived with his body told us that he received a fatal bullet wound on the right side of his chest just as he was trying to change the magazine of his gun in a lying position. However, before he got killed, my father had shot dead 12 out of the 200-odd rebels who had surrounded the convoy of 32 officers. Clearly they were outnumbered. He died even before the nursing assistant, who was barely 30 metres away, could arrive," said Pilani.

Overcoming his sorrow at least for some moments, Pilani said, "I could still see a smile on his face when his corpse reached the village on Thursday morning." Undeterred by the death, Pilani, like his dad, wants to become an army officer and is undergoing training at the National Defence Academy, Pune.

Singh is survived by his wife, a daughter, who is a flight lieutenant with the Indian Air Force, and two sons.


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