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100-year-old Dehradun shop gets order for khukris from US army officer

Hindustan Times, Dehradun | By
Apr 25, 2019 03:37 PM IST

The Khukri manufacturing shop named Satish Khukri received an order of 60 Khukris few days back from a US army officer of Marine Corps, who personally visited the shop to place the order.

A 100-year-old Dehradun-based Khukri manufacturing shop has received an order of 60 Khukris from a serving US army official, which the owner of the shop claimed will be used in operations in overseas expedition in Gulf region.

The Khukri manufacturing shop named Satish Khukri received an order of 60 Khukris few days back from a US army officer of Marine Corps, who personally visited the shop to place the order.

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Khukri is a traditional weapon of the Gorkhas and belongs to the knife family.

Satish Khukri, which is over 100 years old, is run by the fourth generation of Thapa family in Dehradun’s Dakra Bazaar. They supply to the regiments of Indian Army.

“The officer dropped by at my shop a few days back along with another official to inquire about the Khukri. He developed a liking for the weapon a few months back after he saw soldiers of Indian Army’s Gorkha Regiment during a joint exercise between Indian and US armies in Ranikhet,” said the shop owner, Vikas Thapa. He added that the shop, which was started by his mother’s grandfather, deals with handmade and machine made Khukris.

“The US army officer was impressed with the weapon when he compared it with their own knife. I showed him both the machine-made and the handmade Khukri and he chose the handmade one,” Thapa said, adding, “the handmade ones have more durability then the machine-made ones.”

“While placing the order the officer said that the Khukris would be used in an operation by their forces deployed in the Gulf. He also promised to place more orders in future,” Thapa claimed.

The price of Khukris in Thapa’s shop ranges from 450 and to 16,000.

“The costliest ones have some traditional carving work of silver on it and completely handmade. The blades of the Khukris sold by us are from six inch to 22 inch,” he said.

Thapa said, “It is the first time that a foreign army officer has placed such a heavy order for operational use. Before this, I have supplied to officers of Australian, UAE and British forces but in small quantities for gifting purpose.”

One of his artisans at the shop’s factory, Abdul Saddiq, 62, said, “I have been in this work for about 40 years. I have been manufacturing Khukris all my life. We are attached to this and pour every skill possible to produce each weapon with finesse. This is the reason we have loyal customers and reputation in the market,” he said.

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