It’s been 10 years since the Kargil war. July 4, 1999 was when a vital victory for India was sealed.
It was war when 1 country (Pakistan) army denied to accept own soldier bodies & those bodies cremated by other country(India) with full respect .
The recapture of Tiger Hill was a turning point during the Kargil conflict and the Indian Army did not look back after that victory. And on Sunday the Army is looking back with pride ten years after the military operation and recapture of the formidable 5,062 metre-high mountain top from Pakistani Army regulars in Operation Vijay. “Today is the tenth anniversary of our winning back the Tiger Hill from the Pakistani Army regulars, who were sitting on the top. Tiger Hill and Tololing range victories can be said to be the turning points of the war as from there on, there was nothing stopping the Indian Army till the time the war ended on July 26,” a senior officer from the 56 Brigade in Drass said. The celebrations, the officer said, are being held at the respective present locations of the units who won the battle. “We would be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the battle at Drass on July 26, the day when the battle ended in favour of India and we wrested all our positions from the Pakistanis,” he said. Kargil-based 8 Mountain Division of the Indian Army is planning to honour the units and next of kin of the martyrs and the gallantry award winners during the celebrations. “We have invited over 450 people including the representatives of the units, which took part in the action, the families of the martyrs along with the senior commanders of the region at that time,” 8 Mountain Division Commander Major General Suresh Khajuria said. The Army Chief and all the senior Commanders are going to be here for the event, he said. Units from three regiments — 18 Greandiers, 2 Naga and 8 Sikh — were involved in the operations to recapture the feature dominating the National Highway A1 (NHA1) and from where the Pakistani troops were shelling Indian convoys moving towards Kargil and Leh in a bid to cut off Indian supply lines towards Siachen and the whole of Ladakh region. Their attack was launched on the feature in the corresponding night of July 4-5, 1999 by two batallions and by next morning, they evicted the Pakistani troops belonging to 12 Northern Light Infantry, Special Forces, Engineers and Artillery from the feature. After the operations, Havaldar Yogendra Yadav from 18 Greandiers was awarded the Param Vir Chakra for his exceptional display of gallantry in the intense battle for the peak. Tiger Hill has sharp conical features, which stands among the mountain tops a few kilometres north of Drass. During the Kargil war, the picture of Indian troops after having captured the Tiger Hill became the symbol of the Indian victory in the war. CNN-IBN’s Pawan Bali met the heroes of Tiger Hill who got together once again after a decade to remember the soldiers they lost.
TIGER HILL
This 16,800 feet high peak sealed India’s victory during the Kargil war. It was cleared after a battle of four nights, in which 132 guns were used and over 30 soldiers martyred.
NATIONAL HIGHWAY
The Leh-Srinagar National Highway 1A, which has now been renamed as I-D, was the main target of the intruders. The aim was to cut off this supply route to the region and Siachen base
CAPTAIN COURAGEOUS
Captain Sourav Kalia was one of the first six soldiers killed during the Kargil war. Their bodies returned mutilated. Ever year on his birthday and Vijay Diwas, the families receive hundreds of greetings from across the country.
HAMBOTINGLA PASS
On the way to Batalik you cross the Hambotingla Pass which is on 13,200 feet altitude. The peaks captured during the Kargil war were anywhere between 15,000 to 18,000 feet high.
BATALIK TRIBE
In this pic: A woman from the Aryan tribe, Drogpas, in Batalik.
Over 600 families of this tribe helped the Army as porters and even provided food to the soldiers. A shepherd from this tribe was the first man to spot the intruders.
ROAD TO RECOVERY
Inaccessibility and lack of road connectivity was the main problem during the Kargil war. Ten years later, most of the peaks have well metalled roads.
THE TOWN THAT SAW IT ALL
Kargil town, which was completely deserted during the war, recalls the close encounter with 62 days of bombing and constant enemy fire.
TRYST WITH TERROR
The intruders were barely three kilometers away from Drass town. People here still live under the shadow of that war that was at their doorsteps. Drass is the second coldest inhabited place in the world after Siberia.
OPERATION VIJAY
Kargil war memorial in Drass where names of over 527 martyrs have been inscribed.
A SALUTE TO THE SOLDIERS
1. The naga warrior who walked on ice
Capt. Neikezhakuo Kenguruse, 25*
2 Rajputana Rifles, MAHA VIR CHAKRA
His moment: June 28, 1999, Lone Hill, Drass Sector. When his feet were slipping off a rock face at 16,000 foot and -10 degrees C, he kicked his boots off, got a foothold for his commandos, killed four enemy soldiers, before being shot off the cliff.
Nimbu Sahab to the Rajputs he commanded, Neibu to his family, he was destined to carry the No. 2 tag the second of Neiselie and Dino Kenguruse’s 12 children. Until the night of June 28, 1999 on Lone Hill in the Drass sector made him Nagaland’s martyr number one.
Belonging to a generation of Nagas that grew up hating or fighting the Indian army, few expected the wiry Neibu to don military colours. None certainly in his native village Nerhema (22 km north of Kohima) which was burnt down twice during five decades of counter-insurgency operations. The family Kenguruse had many reasons to wish Neibu hadn’t gone to the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun. His grandfather Pfulhousa had fought the British-Indian army at Nerhema and was later forced to work as a coolie for the Indian army. Besides, they were Angamis, the epitome of the fiercely independent Naga spirit, to which legendary rebel leader A.Z. Phizo belonged.
Neibu was aware of the churning back home while he was hard to earn his stripes,says 64-year-old Neiselie in Nagamese, a Hindi-Assamese hybrid of a lingua franca in Nagaland. Seventeen months before he was commissioned on December 12, 1998, the militant National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) declared a ceasefire. He hoped to return to a new Nagaland, but God had other wishes, says the deeply religious Neiselie, a retired employee (fourth grade peon) of the state health department. When he did return as Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse in a coffin a new Nagaland did welcome him. Neibu did more than making us proud; he changed our perception of the Indian army.That arguably triggered the mainstreaming of Naga society to an extent, inspiring a line of young people to enlist; and for others to begin the long journey for opportunities in the country beyond.
The day his body arrived at Dimapur, thousands lined the road to Nerhema, where it was interred with military honours. Nagaland hadn?t seen anything like this never for an Indian army soldier since Phizo died in 1989.
Neiselie recalls Neibu’s soldier of 2 Rajputana Rifles spoke in awe of theirNimbu Sahab. When trying to climb a slippery rockface and secure a rope for his men in the bitter cold, his boots were slipping. So, he reverted to the ways of his head-hunting great-grandfather the dreaded Perheile kicked off his boots and clambered up barefoot to launch his final battle, killing the enemy before a volley of bullets threw him off the cliff to 200 feet below.
Neibu’s parents and siblings have no complaints. The government kept its promise: the family got a petrol station, albeit belatedly, and Neibu’s younger sister Asinuo, is a clerk with the Nagaland Police. The main gate to the 3rd Corps headquarters at Rangapahar (Dimapur) once the focus of Naga hatred has been named after Neibu.
2. Boxer in the ring, leader on the warfront
Capt. Keishing Clifford Nongrum, 25*
12 Jammu & Kashmir Light Infantry, MAHA VIR CHAKRA
His moment: July 1, 1999, just short of post 4812. A strong leader, Nongrum charged and destroyed a bunker alone, fought hand-to-hand with Pakistani soldiers, and attacked another bunker before he was killed.
Hello, Kargil, the attendants reply when the phone rings at the petrol station. But the station is far from Kargil if fact, it’s in the Bees Mile area, the 20th milestone from Guwahati on the Shillong road that has come to be known locally as Kargil Point. It’s in deference to Captain Nongrum in a corner of India where the very concept of India is still shaky.
Retired banker Keishing Peter, 62, has no complaints about waiting five years to get a promised service station after his son’s death. Ten years after an army officer stepped into his home to convey the deepest regrets of the President, Keishing says: Officers told us how he clambered uphill through the night of July 1, charged through enemy fire and lobbed a grenade killing six Pakistani soldiers in the nearest bunker and punched away some more he was a boxer too before snatching a machine gun in another.
In the 22 months he served the J&K Light Infantry, he came home three times. He was always busy motivating students to join the army, says his mother Saily. In the matrilineal Khasi society, children take the mother?s name. Clifford like elder brother Jeffrey and younger brother Paul chose to add that of his father, a Tangkhul Naga from Manipur, to his name. With the blood of two warrior communities flowing through him, it seemed easy enough for Clifford to head to the Officers Training Academy in September 1996. But it wasn’t an easy decision in a land under 25 Himas (tribal kingdoms) still not reconciled to being ‘tricked into’ signing the Instrument of Accession with the Indian Union 60 years ago.
A mound 50 metres from the Nongrum residence apparently helped Clifford make up his mind. He’d often spend hours on the mound peering down at Happy Valley a kilometre beyond, absorbed in the daily drills of the men in the Assam Rifles base.
He made friends with the sons of the officers to play football. The passion saw him form the Maitshaphrang literally, march forward Club with boys in the locality. Soccer honed Clifford’s leadership qualities, but we didn?t realise he was using the sport to be fighting fit to join the Short Service Commission after graduating in political science, recalls Peter.
For many Khasis besides Clifford’s parents, Pt 4812 has become a pilgrimage. So has a second-floor room in the Nongrum residence filled with his memorabilia including a parachute brought from the Siachen Glacier during his last visit. But more importantly, Captain Nongrum?s sacrifice and the Maha Vir Chakra award given to him posthumously has egged many Khasis on to wear stars and service stripes, as he had urged.
