'Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity': 7 BSF women held frontline for 72 hours in Operation Sindoor

In what is being hailed as a historic first, a team of seven women personnel from the Border Security Force (BSF) held their ground under relentless enemy fire for three consecutive days and nights during Operation Sindoor in Jammu and Kashmir’s Akhnoor sector.

Their commanding officer, Assistant Commandant Neha Bhandari, not only led the defence of two forward posts but also coordinated artillery and troop movements—marking what could be the first instance of a woman commanding active combat operations in India.

Bhandari, who joined the force just three years ago, turned down offers to step back from the frontline as intense shelling erupted across the border. “When we had trained as soldiers, our training regimen and resources were the same as our male counterparts,” she told ToI.

Young recruits & seasoned fighters

Of the seven women stationed at the posts, four had joined BSF only in 2023, barely a year before the operation. The remaining two—Manjit Kour and Malkit Kour—brought with them nearly two decades of service.

Together with new recruits Swapna Rath, Shampa Basak, Sumi Xess, and Jyoti Banian, they held off Pakistani firing units across the border in Sialkot using sustained retaliatory fire, forcing the adversary to abandon their forward positions.

The posts—small structures combining bunkers and observation points—came under repeated attack. Despite the risks, the BSF women refused to withdraw. “Once we insisted on staying put, our seniors motivated us to give our best,” said Bhandari.

Commanded Army reinforcements, chose artillery independently
BSF officers confirmed that Neha Bhandari went beyond just leading her own unit. She also commanded Army reinforcements brought in during the operation.

BSF DIG Varindar Dutta of the Sunderbani sector described her role as unprecedented: “This is the first time a woman officer commanded troops in active combat. Even the Army is still not deploying women in such roles.”

For the women on the ground, it wasn’t about breaking barriers—it was about doing the job they were trained for. And in Operation Sindoor, they showed the country, and the enemy, that they could do it under fire.

(With inputs from ToI)