Nagaland attained its statehood in 1963 and the Naga Regiment was formed seven years later. Nevertheless, a remarkable fact about its raising was that several ex-militants were given a fair chance to prove their newfound nationalism and made to join the Indian Armed Forces, many of them were directly appointed junior commissioned officers.

But even before their training could be completed and the recruits were administered oath, trouble began brewing on our eastern border. Bypassing the training schedule, the Naga Regiment was ordered to move into the concentration areas. And thus the youngest regiment of the Indian Army was pushed into the war with scanty preparedness. Still it held the Tri-colour aloft, it should be attributed jointly to the natural instincts of the Naga warriors and to the inherent valour of Kumaunis, Garhwalis and Gorkhas, the other hill tribes to be drawn into the Naga Regiment.

The remarkable achievement of the Naga Regiment laid the way for raising of the second Naga battalion. Subsequently, the second Naga battalion was inducted into Keran sector of Kupwara district, where it was responsible for ensuring the sanctity of approximately 24 kilometres of Line of Control (LoC) and also to counter anti-national elements and their operations. It was in this sector the second Naga battalion participated in one of the landmark operations — Operation Romeo. The goal of this operation was to dominate the LoC, which was wrongly occupied by the enemy. The entire operation was carried out with clockwork precision and without any casualties to our troops. This was the first proactive operation in the divisional sector and has been a trend-setter.

Over the years, the Naga Regiment has carved out a niche for itself against insurgency operations.

If the second Naga battalion proved its mettle in counter-insurgency activities, so did the first Naga battalion. One of the remarkable operations was carried out at Halnar, in which five militants were killed. The list of such operations is endless.