The soldier who cut off his own leg - Ian Cardozo #BlogchatterA2Z

December 1971, Indo-Pak war was over where around 7000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered.

One day after the surrender, Major Ian Cardozo (Gorkha rifles) got a call from the BSF (Border Security Force) commander near his post.

Major Gen. Ian Cardozo

Major , with a patrol of three men decided to give the commander a visit.

They started walking towards the location . Unfortunately , they did not realize that the Pakistanis had laid a minefield in that area.

And around 8 in the morning , Cardozo stepped on a mine and it blasted. Major fell on the ground badly hurt .

His uniform was covered with his own blood and he was gritting his teeth to bear the horrible pain.

Both of his legs were badly damaged, especially the left one - a mangled foot hanged from his bloody ankle.

His Sahayak , Balbahadur was watching his beloved 'Cartoos Sahib' with teary eyes.

Cardozo ordered him to take his Khukri and cut his damaged leg. Balbahadur refused to do so and told him that he would have to wait for the doctor.

Cardozo was in terrible pain for more than 2 hours . He took out his own Khukri and chopped his bone a little above the ankle with a fierce slash himself and told his sahayak to bury his bloody ankle. 

Can you imagine how much courage it would have taken ?

The doctor arrived and was shocked to see what Cardozo had done .Major told the doctor to tie up the leg and stop the bleeding instead of lecturing him.

At that time , all helicopters were engaged and none available to take the wounded soldier to the Indian Army hospital.

However, Pakistanis had hospitals operational in the area and had offered to operate on him .

But , Major agreed on two conditions - One that his CO (Commanding officer)woud be there the whole time for he did not trust the Pakistanis and two that he would not accept any Pakistani blood.

Hearing this , the CO tells him that he was being a fool . In reply Cardozo replies "Sir , I would rather die a fool than live with Pakistani blood in my veins".

He was operated upon by Major Mohammad Bashir who did a good job but Cardozo was not able to thank him for he never met him again.

Today , he tells his wife "I have a piece of land in Bangladesh - one foot by one foot , by one foot which is my own foot".

Funny. Right ?

He is a brave man who fought for the country in the 1971 war and has been fighting for the rights of war-disabled soldiers and still runs eleven kilometres in the Mumbai Marathon every year .

Ian at a Marathon