Book sequel to give exclusive account of Balakot airstrikes, surgical strikes

Exclusive account of the Balakot airstrikes and first-hand reports of other anti-terror encounters will make for some of the stories in the sequel of "India's Most Fearless 2", publisher Penguin Random House India announced.

Set to release in June, 2019, the book written by journalist-author duo Rahul Singh and Shiv Aroor will share "untold narrative of the biggest recent anti-terror operations" by the Indian army.

Co-author Shiv Aroor said that while opening with an account of the airstrikes in Balakot, the book narrates other such heroic tales with more details.

"We were astonished by the interest and readership of India's Most Fearless -- we knew that readers wanted stories about military heroes, but we weren't prepared for that level of interest and hunger for such tales.

"We're very pleased to open Part 2 with an account of the Indian Air Force's airstrikes in Balakot, though the core of our book takes things much deeper, with even more detailed, up-close accounts of military heroes," Aroor said.

A collective of fourteen stories, the book brings together narratives from different angles, "be it the men who hunted terrorists in a magical Kashmir forest where day turns to night, a pair of young Navy men who gave their all to save their entire submarine crew", among others.

Rahul Singh said that "more than authorship it was a sense of duty that inspired them to write a sequel".

"Readers of 'India's Most Fearless' have frequently told us that the accounts in our book immortalise armed forces heroes who would otherwise remain largely unknown outside the military....We have no doubt that these stories have a life of their own," Singh said.

The first book was published in 2017 and sold around 40,000 copies.

Talking about the upcoming release, Swati Chopra, senior commissioning editor, Penguin Random House India, said that while offering a first person account of the operations, the stories also provide the reader with a larger perspective.

"'India's Most Fearless 2' brings to us more true stories of indomitable courage from our armed forces, ones that move and inspire in equal measure. I can guarantee both goosebumps and a lump in the throat while reading them! The writing is taut and gripping as it takes us to ground zero where the action takes place, and then zooms back to look at the larger perspective," she said.