Telangana urges Centre to set up infantry regiment
Hyderabad: Telangana Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar appealed to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to set up Telangana Infantry Regiment to honour the Telangana people’s contribution to the nation. He wrote a letter to the Defence Minister in this regard and said the Telangana government would extend all support towards setting up the regiment. Recently, […]
Hyderabad: Telangana Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar appealed to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to set up Telangana Infantry Regiment to honour the Telangana people’s contribution to the nation. He wrote a letter to the Defence Minister in this regard and said the Telangana government would extend all support towards setting up the regiment.
Recently, Telangana ex-servicemen association members met the Telangana Planning Board vice-chairman and informed him that the Indian Army was raising three new battalions with 3,000 troops under Sikh, Kumaon and J&K regiments. During the meeting, they opined that instead of raising new battalions in existing regiments, a new Telangana infantry regiment should be created, he said in the letter. “While we achieved a separate State, we still believe that at the national-level, our identity needs to be recognised. Establishing a separate infantry regiment will be a step in this direction,” he said.
Vinod Kumar further said Hyderabad and Secunderabad have a long history of association with the Indian Army and Secunderabad Cantonment is equipped with abundant land bank and a suitable eco-system. The recent unfortunate incident in which Colonel Santosh Babu from Telangana was martyred has deeply impacted Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, he said.
The 19th Hyderabad regiment, an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army, was formed at the end of the First World War and played a significant role till the Second World War. The lashkars of the Hyderabad regiment were specialised in jungle warfare and fought in the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma.
The Hyderabad regiment was considered to be one of the strongest regiments during the time but unfortunately, the regiment was disbanded post-Independence and was incorporated into the Indian army as Kumaon regiment, he explained.
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