a.k.a. Establishment 22
Even though many may have been in the know for over half a century, it was the recent funeral of a Tibetan soldier in Leh that officially lifted the veil from the SFF. Nyima Tenzin, a Tibetan soldier of the Special Frontier Force (SFF), operating under command of the Indian Army in Ladakh, was killed in action on 29 August 2020. BJP’s General Secretary, Ram Madhav along with officers of the Indian Army and many people of the Tibetan community paid their last respects to the martyred soldier in Leh on 7 September 2020.
According to an Indian Army spokesman, Tenzin was killed in action after he stepped on an old landmine in Ladakh, south of the scenic Pangong Tso Lake. It was in this area that the Indian Army, in a pre-emptive move on the night of 29-30 August, took commanding positions atop some heights, these features overlooking key Chinese positions across the undetermined Line of Actual Control border. Nyima was a member of the Special Frontier Force (SFF), part of the Indian Army known as ‘Vikas Force’, which reportedly has seven such units, primarily drawn from the thousands of Tibetan refugees who now call India as their home. The SFF was formed in the immediate aftermath of the 1962 border war with China. Also known as Establishment 22, this was raised by Major General Sujan Singh Uban, an artillery officer who had commanded 22 Mountain Regiment and so named the new covert group after his regiment.
The units that comprise the SFF come under direct purview of the Cabinet Secretariat and are operationally tasked by the Army. The force is headed by a Major General rank Army officer, who serves as Inspector General of the SFF. Training centre of the SFF is at Chakrata, a hill station at Uttarakhand, its insignia being a Snow Lion. This special force recruits mostly from Tibetan refugees, hundreds of thousands of whom made India their home since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 and has been in this country since.
The SFF has reportedly been employed in various military operations, including the December 1971 war where it operated in the Chittagong Hill Tracts as also during the Kargil battles in the summer of 1999. However, the SFF (or Vikas Forces) have largely functioned under the shadows, with SFF soldiers owing their dual allegiance to HH Dalai Lama, the flag of Tibet and the flag of India. They are highly skilled mountain warriors and trained to operate behind enemy lines. Also established in late 1962 was an air component known as the Air Research Centre (ARC) which was raised by (then) Air Commodore Lal Singh Grewal, later VCAS, initially equipped with US-origin Curtiss C-46 Commandos and a variety of STOL aircraft for operations at very high altitude airstrips in the Himalayas, its main operating base being at Charbatia in Orissa and Sarsawa in UP. The C-46s have long been replaced by contemporary aircraft types, with many based at Palam Airport, Delhi.
Maj. Gen. Sujan Singh Uban
Air Marshal Lal Singh Grewal
Vayu Research Team
Images from the internet