With unimaginable talents and energy that amazed us will forever remain in our soil. Balraj, who has marked great heights as a guerrilla fighter in the mid-eighties, led those guerrilla teams and achieved many victories.
When the guerrilla form of struggle transformed to a traditional form, Balraj led that too. the Tamils who were amazed by the victories in his leadership called him “The Man of War.”
A modern traditional battle is fought by different types of skilled soldiers. Modern battlefields are divided into frontend and backend. A battle is won by the hard-skilled soldiers of many factions.
Brigadier Balraj was the one who guided hundreds of fighters with various skills and brought many military victories to Tamils.
“Taking care of the wounded in battle is a key element in sustaining the morale of an army or any organized fighting force.” – Taraki Sivaram-
I can say, how he was on the battlefield, in my view as a background fighter who did medical work under his leadership behind the battlefields.
Our fighters roam the battlefields without fear of death. But when they get wounded in they expect their field doctors to be next to them.
Brigadier Balraj was the only one who knew perfectly, that the efficiency of the soldiers will be more when field doctors are near to them. it is his learnings from the experience he has gained. As our military analyst and noble man Sivaram said, it is our Hero of War, Balraj who understands exactly what the warriors need.
In all the battles he makes sure that he knows about the strengths of the field medicine team that the leader has given him for that fight, no matter what battle it is, he makes note of the information like the number of field physicians are on the medical team, number of How many medical management fighters in the field, Where are they stationed? their Walkie Talkie number in his notebook.
Even if he writes down all the details like a scribe in a notebook, he will be able to memorize and commands when needed. the ammunition is as important as the medicine on the battlefield. He maintains the Ammunition and Armory and the team that distributes them. Balraj is a person who directly organizes himself by exploring the backward defense line as deeply and meticulously as the Foreword Defense Line on a battlefield.
He will give the same amount of respect and recognition to the soldiers who stand in the background as he gives to the warrior who stands in the front and fights fiercely. This precise organizing capacity will always be a testament to the enormous success of Brigadier Balraj.
His real name was Kandaiya Balasekaram who lived in the field for a long time under the code name “Lima”. Brigadier Balraj’s spy feedback is always good. Balraj’s charisma makes us running fast with our wheels locked like front-line soldiers.
The kudaraappu landing, which was marred by world military experts, and the subsequent successful march of troops day and night for thirty-four (34) days, cutting through the supply routes to Aanaiyiravu (Elephant Pass) base camp. there are no words to describe this even in our classical mother language Tamil.
One of the secrets of war success was his hard work, in which he set up a box-like formation strategy in the Iththavil area. As well as the overconfidence the fighters, junior commanders, and special frontier soldiers had on Balraj the Man of the Wars, pushed them toward greater victory.
The public had as much faith in Balraj as the militants had. March is the third month of the Gregorian calendar. This month is named after the Roman war god “Mars”. As far as the Tamils are concerned, it is the month when they think about their war god “Balraj”.
It was a day in the east of Vadamarachchi, we were building shelters in the hot sands for the wounded people and fighters. Due to the looseness of the sand, we were unable to do it.
From the enemy’s strongholds, artillery was pouring five-inch missiles into the area adjacent to the Philip Neri church in Sembianpatru, where our people relied heavily on on. It was at that time a member of the Tigers’ political wing from Chundikulam came to us and introduced himself. He had set up barns and brought a large vehicle to accommodate the people trapped in the war in the Chundikulam area.
It was Bishop Francis who stood there as a shadow guarding his people and the people of Ayalur. So the person from the political wing talked to the people through him. but people refused to move. As all the paths are closed he came to us.
As we were giving medical assistance to the people they had more faith in us. so we convinced them to move out. after we asked the reason to the people why they refused? they replied to us like political strategists that “when Balraj’s brothers are here why we should fear and move out of this place?. Army will run out of this place in few days.
The Tamils relied heavily on their guardian deities. In addition god, the Tamils believed in Brigadier Balraj (Man of Valor) as much as the mountain. I would like to give an example of how he loved people. The Charles Antony Brigade, led by Lt. Colonel Rajasinghe, spotted eight members of three families trapped in the area where the boxing took place in Iththavil and informed Brigadier Balraj on the walkie talkie. He immediately ordered them to be sent back with their belongings and not to cause even a single scratch injury.
It was through Naneer lake between Iththavil and Sembianpatru they were sent back. Four of those sent back were very old and one of them was a 94-year-old grandmother. Bettichammer met with field doctors and medical fighters about three months after the Aanaiy Arivu was fully recovered.
He talked a lot about the fight that took place and highly praised all of us and at one point asked about the civilians who were rescued from the field in Iththvil. We were all amazed when he asked about those people in the midst of so many workloads.
Fortunately, I had a letter from them when we sent them to the Tamil Rehabilitation Society. I saw their address and, At the end of the meeting, I gave him the temporary address in Akkarayan at Kilinochchi where the old lady was staying. He also made note of it.
The boundless grandeur and speech and breath of this brilliant senior commander kept driving us those days. We are more and more proud that we lived in the time of Brigadier Balraj, the genius warrior of Tamils! There are still many chapters of battlefields and victories that the enemy thought as impossible were made possible before our Man of War. Remembering and recording them will pave the way for us to review ourselves and follow in the footsteps of heroic generals like Brigadier Balraj and win our rights.
