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Nepalese Gorkhas have helped to build strong bonds of friendship between the two armies. Though all the Gorkha regiments have performed creditably in India's wars since independence, the 5Gorkha Rifles has a legendary record. The 5/5 GR (FF) fought gallantly in the Hyderabad Police Action in 1948. In this action, Naik Nar Bahadur Thapa was awarded the first Ashok Chakra Class I of independent India on September 15, 1948. The 4/5 GR (FF) earned the distinction of becoming the first battalion of the Indian Army to participate in a heliborne attack in the Battle of Sylhet during the 1971 war for the liberation of Bangladesh. Besides the major wars, the Gorkhas have served in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, at the Siachen Glacier and in the UN peacekeeping missions in Lebanon and Sierra Leone . In October 2011, the 4/9 GR won the gold medal in the annual Cambrian Patrol Competition held in Wales, UK. The Gorkhas still carry into battle their traditional weapon -an 18-inch long wickedly curved, broadbladed heavy knife known as the khukri. It is the world's most renowned fighting knife. It's said: "Often the mere sight of an unsheathed khukri is enough to discourage any further action by causing a cold, cramped feeling in the nether regions of the stomach." Legend has it that once a khukri was drawn in battle , it had to 'taste blood' . If it did not, its owner had to cut himself before returning it to its sheath. The author is director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi