There are people. Then there are the best. Then comes the best of the best. While being a Para commando is one thing that many soldiers dream of and some eventually become a part of it, there are 9 PARA SF on the other side – the nucleus, the heart of the Parachute Regiment. 9 PARA, the Special Forces, is the first Special Forces battalion of Indian Armed Forces who had established its name by unlimited heroic deeds which seem impossible to Indian Military before.
Raised in July 1966, 9th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (Commando) was the first special operations unit of the Parachute Regiment.
9 PARA SF is also called as Ghost Operators of Indian Army due to it being highly secretive. Else, we would have a Wikipedia on their reputation and bravery since its formation.
If this was not enough, 9 PARA SF had given gems like L/Naik Mohan Goswami, L/Naik Om Prakash and Capt Tushar Mahajan to India and to her people.
Evaluating its secretiveness, 9 PARA SF can be considered working wholly as an independent organisation. They operated the most lethal weapons and at the same time, have their own army of geeks to look after cybersecurity, encryption, decryption, and so on.
9 Para SF are specially trained in unconventional warfare and are as good as MARCOS and was also meant for secret operations deep within foreign soil, go to depths of 7 to 50 km inside (hostile territory) and are trained in such way, but overused and sometimes misused to fight insurgents all the time, so casualties are more.
It is another thing that matter, 9 Para SF is being used to do tasks which better-trained line infantry or para battalions can do. However, their training remains the same – learning local languages, crawling through mud, holding breath underwater, surviving in a jungle, guerrilla warfare, and most important doing successful missions in groups of two or three and surviving alone.
After just 2 years in the army a 9 PARA SF, at the age of 23, has been in about 60 missions – many run for weeks or months when in J&K or Naxal areas.
Now hypothetically, will all of this have been possible if they were not so secretive?
9 PARA SF has stories to share but their silent instinct has made them the so-called silent killers of today.
