Ladakh intrusions: Special Frontier Force takes first casualties

The SFF was raised in November 1962 in the aftermath of India's crushing defeat by China

At 7 am on Tuesday, a small army convoy rolled into the Tibetan settlement of Choglamsar, adjoining Leh, the capital of Ladakh. Inside a truck, draped in the Indian tricolour, lay the coffin of Company Leader Nyima Tenzin of the Special Frontier Force (SFF), an elite paratroop unit manned by volunteers from the 120,000-strong Tibetan refugee community in India. 

An army officer handed over Tenzin’s body to his wife and three children.

A Tibetan nationalist at heart, with his loyalty to the traditional Snow Lion flag, Nyima Tenzin completed his last journey wrapped in the tricolor by a grateful nation,