Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Anujan · Post by **Anujan** » 26 Jul 2012 08:19

Today we commemorate the day that the brave sons and daughters of India sacrificed their lives and well being and threw out Paki army from Kargil.

Mariappan Saravanan's sister was my classmate. I still remember the shock on her face when she heard the news. May his and all the other brave souls rest in peace.

Jai Hind.

abhishek_sharma · Post by **abhishek_sharma** » 26 Jul 2012 08:26

Jai Hind!

SagarAg · Post by **SagarAg** » 26 Jul 2012 08:29

"Ae Mere Watan Ke Logon Zara Aankh Mein Bhar Lo Paani Jo Shaheed Hue Hain Unki Zaraa Yaad Karo Kurbani"

Salute to our soldiers for protecting our Motherland India.

Jai Hind Jai Bharat!!

Manish_Sharma · Post by **Manish_Sharma** » 26 Jul 2012 08:40

Shat shat pranaams to brave son's of Bharat Mata who sacrificed themselves to regain our territory !!

tushar_m · Post by **tushar_m** » 26 Jul 2012 08:56

jai hind jai bharat

partha · Post by **partha** » 26 Jul 2012 09:50

Never forget. Never forgive.

partha · Post by **partha** » 26 Jul 2012 10:46

Reading (again) about Kargil war, blood boils onlee. What to do?

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 26 Jul 2012 11:12

partha wrote:Never forget. Never forgive.

+100^100
May the strong will to protect our motherland, which the martyrs of Kargil embodied in their lives and in their deaths, manifest itself again and again in a million more sons and daughters of this hallowed land.

Rahul M · Post by **Rahul M** » 26 Jul 2012 11:15

Hard to say anything on such an occasion.

We will not forget.

andy B · Post by **andy B** » 26 Jul 2012 11:19

Rahul M wrote:Hard to say anything on such an occasion.

We will not forget.

Agreed Rahul like Partha said "Never Forgive Never Forget".

Dilbu · Post by **Dilbu** » 26 Jul 2012 11:20

We remember your sacrifice brothers. RIP. Jai Hind!

partha · Post by **partha** » 26 Jul 2012 11:22

I have been thinking about this Kargil war and I as an aam aadmi cannot do much other than pay my taxes and vote wisely. I probably cannot go to the border and crush the enemy. So the best thing I can do is not to let go the sacrifices of the brave men of Indian armed forces. But how? By telling the stories of Kargil, 71, 65, 47 heroes to my next generation. The Vijayanagara ruins inspired Shivaji. The story of Vijayanagara instilled in him the fighting spirit and killer instinct. So let us all tell Kargil story to our next generation and inspire them.

pradeepe · Post by **pradeepe** » 26 Jul 2012 11:57

We will not forget. RIP soldiers.

abhijitm · Post by **abhijitm** » 26 Jul 2012 12:04

we shall not let these wounds heal. we shall keep reminding ourselves of what we owe and who owe us.

RKumar · Post by **RKumar** » 26 Jul 2012 13:12

Jai Hind!! May Bharat Mata bless us and victory always be ours!!

keshavchandra · Post by **keshavchandra** » 26 Jul 2012 13:53

This is the right time to pay back the tribute to our brave soldiers, who fight, died for us and for our great nation.
Jai Hind.

Adrija · Post by **Adrija** » 26 Jul 2012 14:40

Never forgive, Never forget

Jai Hind

prashanth · Post by **prashanth** » 26 Jul 2012 20:57

Jai Hind. RIP brave soldiers.

Ghatotkacha · Post by **Ghatotkacha** » 26 Jul 2012 21:15

Hi BRFites,
I have been looking for some good documentary on Kargil war.
Just wondering if Indian news channel have made one. Please let me know details, I will try to search online.

Thanks!

Ankur · Post by **Ankur** » 26 Jul 2012 21:25

RIP -- Brave Soldiers

You will always be missed and remembered.

Prem Kumar · Post by **Prem Kumar** » 26 Jul 2012 21:39

RIP jawans. You will always be in our memories.

Lets also not forget Capt. Saurabh Kalia and his colleagues, whose parents are yet to get justice

Prem · Post by **Prem** » 26 Jul 2012 23:46

[youtube]Sj6gfWkC2zs&feature=related[/youtube]

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 27 Jul 2012 00:07

God bless the brave souls who gave their lives defending us! We will never forget. RIP

Asit P · Post by **Asit P** » 27 Jul 2012 00:12

"Some goals are so worthy that it's glorious even to fail" - Lt Manoj Pandey.

Remembering the brave hearts of Kargil war. Happy Vijay Diwas to all Indians.

brat · Post by **brat** » 27 Jul 2012 00:44

Jai Hind!

member_20069 · Post by **member_20069** » 27 Jul 2012 01:27

I can't forget the day when I 1st learn't about Kargil operations. I had just landed in New York when the person who came to pick me up from the airport told me that we are at war with Pakistan and two of our MIGS had been downed (unbelievable, that these pricks had the capacity pull something like this). I couldn't believe my years, as I had not been in touch with news back home for 3-4 days when I was in France, where I had limited access to internet. My trip lasted for 10 days in NYC where for most part I was glued to samachar.com. Listening to Calls of Dil Mange More and news of Capt Vikram Batra only made me wish, if there is a remote possibility I would like to go to the front and defend my motherland. Unfortunately, had no such option but prayed for these young brave souls and lauded their raw courage.

May our nation never forget them and may we have many more brave hearts like them.

I Salute to these soldiers and may their souls rest in peace for eternity.

Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Jai Hind.

Aaryan · Post by **Aaryan** » 27 Jul 2012 01:30

Sarvatra Vijay JAI HIND

RIP ALL THE BRAVE SOULS...

BAS YEHI GUM HAI KI HUM NA THEY WAHA JAHA TUM THEY... May all of u get moksha...

BajKhedawal · Post by **BajKhedawal** » 27 Jul 2012 02:52

Bharatvarsha amar ho!

Satyamev Jayate!

Jay jay jay Bajrangbali, tod dey harame dushmano kee haddee!!!

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 29 Jul 2012 06:23

Facebook Page of the heroes

Khalsa · Post by **Khalsa** » 29 Jul 2012 07:01

Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never Never

Never will I yield the course
Never will I forgive
Never will I forget

Just like the partha said.... what were taught will be passed on to the next generation.
But for now we must uphold the light and increase the intensity.

SBajwa · Post by **SBajwa** » 29 Jul 2012 07:23

Give peace a Chance!!! DESTROY PAKISTANI ARMY NOW!!!! Only then we can say RIP to our fallen soldiers!!
Soldiers give their live so that their motherland wins!!! and wherever they are now they are yearning for the final win!!

sanjchopra · Post by **sanjchopra** » 29 Jul 2012 07:44

Worth a read..
The original ndtv link is dead but I archived this article for keeps
..... still brings tears to my eyes but makes me proud to belong to land that produced these jewels.......

The glorious dead
Randeep Singh Nandal
Special Correspondent, Defence Affairs
Friday, August,3 2007 (Drass)
It was a glorious morning, the sun was shining and at 13,000 ft, the air though a little thin, Pure. Little banks of clouds accentuated, not marred, the blueness of the sky, the nip in the air just perfect.

I was in Drass and just starting the climb towards one of the craggy rock faces that abound here ........rock faces that saw bitter combat between Indian and Pakistani soldiers in June and July 1999 and that glorious July morning I was accompanying the father of one of the soldiers who died in the war, as he retraced his son's final journey.

Col VN Thapar is a remarkable man, a soldier of the old school, very pucca, very composed. Every year, he climbs up to the exact spot where his son died, that's all eight years since the war ended and has made a small shrine to his son, at 15000 ft!! In 2006, I met him at an army function and promised that the next time he went up I would accompany him - that was that. So here we were, climbing up, crossing high alpine meadows and negotiating icy cold streams.

I said Col Thapar is a remarkable man, it just isn't the resilience he has, I am a reasonably fit man but at these heights it isn't easy. At 65, the Colonel isn't a young man, but he never complains, never once asked for a break, he just goes on stolidly.

No, the real reason for my respect is something that I realized as I shot the story. Here was a man who had lost his young son, Capt Thapar was but 22, when he fell, but even as he recounted Vijayant's last moments, his father, the Colonel, never lost his poise, calm, dignified, he found place in his heart to feel for the Pakistani soldiers his son fought, complimenting their bravery, recounting how tough it must have been for them as they were pounded for days on end by ceaseless arty fire, without water.

He even showed me the cave where they used to take shelter from the shelling and it was never 'as the enemy' that he referred to them, they were the 'Pakistani Boys', just as his son and his mates were the 'RajRif Boys', he was just a soldier talking about fellow soldiers!

For me it was an experience I will always cherish, Kargil was the first war extensively covered by the media, for the first time we saw the Indian army in action, we shared their agony, saw young soldiers on TV hours after a successful attack, alive, happy, recounting their adventures and then some days later saw obits read out on, saw their lifeless bodies, blackened, torn to pieces, being cremated in their hometowns. So it was the first war we saw in real time or did we?

What we saw was a part of the war, what it looked like from Drass but the real action, the actual combat took place at these craggy mountain ridges, the kind we were climbing. It is here that you got an idea of the enormous difficulties of fighting here. Here you saw the Sangars built by the Northern Light Infantry soldiers, their clothes, and ammunition boxes still there. For the first time you saw the bullet marks on rocks, the shell splinters that cut a swathe through men, turning them into the lifeless bodies that came down from the mountains every day of the war.

Walking among those scarred rocks ...those broken sangars, along knife thin spurs was exciting, unsettling, humbling, you realized the enormity of what these soldiers, most in their early twenties, had achieved. For me the whole experience was also very very romantic, I know it's a strange way to describe an event that led to 600 deaths as romantic, but then think of it, what a noble way to die and yes death can be noble, to die for honour, to die for your comrades, to die for an idea is very noble. Of course this would strike some as perhaps being too idealistic, neither honour nor ideas are things easy to explain or justify, but let me attempt to and to do that we have to go back to the generation of Indians that fought and bled in Kargil.

Its the story of my generation, people who grew up in the 80's, each one at one level had a similar life, back from school at 2.30, the evening playing football in the neighborhood park, the 9'0 clock serial on Doordarshan, watched while having dinner. It's a generation for whom the cultural event of the year was the one hour recorded Grammy awards show, telecast days after the event but something we all waited for. It's people from my generation who can actually remember the first time they ate a Pizza, who remember the first digital quartz watch they owned, in most cases a gift from a relative abroad. It was in my generation where it was a badge of honor to say loudly in school that you never watched Hindi films (that we all watched secretly is another thing).

So this breed of people who grew up in the dying days of a socialist India, in many way this generation was an orphan, we had nothing, not the idealism of the 50's and 60's nor the almost brash self confidence of today. What we had was the realisation that we had lousy cars, dirty cities, made bad films and had a political class that we felt had betrayed us. It was an era when you saw a generational change every seven to eight years, such was the sameness of our existence. We grew up in a country, at one level we were ashamed of, where to go settle abroad was to have made it in life. We viewed our country in a way most view a drunk relative at a party, you can't disown them but they embarrass you. India for us was an idea that had gone bad.

But these young boys who fell on those icy slopes in Drass, in Mushkoh, who died winning back Tiger Hill, they died for that idea. They were the lot that joined the army when joining the army was no longer fashionable. Many indeed joined, cause they wanted a job pure and simple but to say that a man would crawl up steep mountain slopes, braving bullets and shells, getting torn to bits, because the Government of India in their benign largesse was paying them Rs 15,000 a month, jawans Rs 7,000 ( they are equated with unskilled labour)!, is simply not understanding the strength of that Idea called India. Yes for many it is a job that feeds their family but if money translated into courage, a battalion of millionaire CEO's would have fought harder, a troop of our Bombay filmstars would have walked up the slopes smoking cigarettes cracking jokes.

No! To me this argument is just another reflection of my generation's disillusionment with India, they simply can't believe that India is an idea that is worth dying for, that these boys fought to claw back a piece of their country taken over by the foe. Patriotism couldn't be the answer. So then to expect them to understand honour and the brotherhood of soldiering and the other pillars of soldiering, would be to expect too much, after all what is honour? - a word consigned to the dustbin in the world we live in, where politicians make promises they have no intention of keeping, where educated men have no qualms about lying in court, the infamy of being a bought witness wiped out in a year or two.

But honour survives in the Indian Army, when the Rajrif boys were fighting for Tololing in early June 1999, they knew that for 200 years men wearing the same cap badge had done the same - fight and die but never turn back, and as they fought and died they knew they were upholders of a legacy that would outlive them, a torch that would be carried forward by other hands, a torch that they must ensure through their blood, would not be extinguished. Many do not realize the power and the pull of this sense of honour.

In his last letter home Vijayant Thapar's one wish was that his photograph be kept in the Alpha company mandir ! He knew he was just a moment in the unshakable universe of the 2nd battalion the Rajputana Rifles, he might fall, but there would be others. The unit would outlive the moment even if he might not, but it was up to him to ensure that in the years ahead this moment, his moment, was remembered with pride. That, subverting your fate to a higher cause, to willingly extinguish yourself, to kill your desires, your dreams, for others, that, is Honour. The izzat of the regiment, it is not something you can see, it is something that that you believe, its an idea.

The 600 fallen in Kargil, these are human beings we are talking about, flesh and blood, with human weaknesses, so 2nd Rajriff who won India's first victory in Kargil, the unit that lost four officers and 25 jawans and almost a 100 wounded, the same 2nd Rajriff also court-martialed a few men cause they simply refused to fight! It isn't their fear that made them do so, every fighting man feels fear. This idea for them wasn't worth dying for, they did not believe.

Honour and patriotism are nothing without the third pillar that makes the army, the brotherhood of soldering. That mix of loyalty and faith whose power is a kinship that makes a Kargil possible, friendship we all know, but how many of us would take a bullet for a friend ?

When young Lt Kengruse joined his unit straight out of the academy, he was the leader of a group of men most of whom had seen many years of service in the army. For the Jats and Rajputs of 2 RajRif , Kengruse, a Naga boy, would have been as strange as a man from outer space but then for Bhup Singh from Jhunjunu and Ram Singh from Jodhpur, he was their Sahib.

So they put their lives in an envelope and gave it to Kengruse, him they would follow, if he made a mistake, they would pay with their blood. They ask only one thing, that he believe in them as much as they believe in him, that he dance with them at the Barakhana, that he eat their Churma, learn to sing their Ragini's, him they would trust and this is the fellowship of the soldier.

When Vijayant Thapar led his platoon into attack on the 29th of June, they were immediately hit by concentrated shellfire and the first man to fall was Vijayant's sahayak or batman, Hukum Singh, torn apart by shell splinters .The survivors remember that it drove Vijayant mad with rage and sorrow, because the two of them had in six months of Vijayant's service in the unit, formed a bond, this Delhi bred officer's son and the metric pass village boy from Rajasthan.

In the unit it was Hukum Singh who would wake him up every morning with a cup of tea, lay out his uniform, not only heat up water for him to bathe but perhaps also put a little toothpaste on his toothbrush, it was Hukum Singh who would see that Sahib had had a tongue lashing from the CO and try cheer him up, in battle Hukum Singh was right next to his buddy Vijayant.

This story might trouble some, why is it that officers are given so much importance, even in the media an officer's death gets more attention, there is only one way to answer that..quite simply - Its an officer driven army. The officer is treated special because the officer leads in battle by example. His message to his troops is always, follow me, who never asks them to do what he would not do themselves. In Kargil in most cases it was a young officer that was first to reach the objective, this Army has the highest officer casualty ratio in the entire world! To lead from the front, this is the officers creed, not Rs 15,000 a month!

So as I walked among the debris of war that July morning, the spent bullet empties, the pieces of metal from arty shells, the rusting ammunition boxes, I tried to picture those battles and the men who fought them. For a moment I could see clearly, the freezing night, the smoke and flashes of falling shells, the hazy light from flares and then the scraggly line of men crawling forward, heads bent, holding their weapons, weighed down by equipment. In the silence I could hear the shouts of the wounded, the screams of a young man as he tried to rally his men, I could sense their fear, how exposed each man must have felt.

In that moment of how acutely alive each must have felt, each part of his body alert, expecting each moment to ripped apart by a piece of metal, how they must have watched the line of tracer curve lazily as it came towards them, each man wanting to do nothing more than to lie down escape this madness. My legs felt as weighed down as theirs must have, how over the crescendo of battle, the loudest noise in their ears must have been the beating of their hearts. And yet they went on, I felt the gaze of their set eyes, the iron will that made them move forward inch by inch mouths sticky with fear. It makes you wonder what men were these ....

Six hundred dead - those that died among these lifeless rocks, on peaks that they had never heard off, seen before, hills that even did not even have names, just numbers on maps, but Maps that told them that this was India and they believed. So what were these 600 like, they came from all over India. Some were gentlemen, some were cads, some were liars and some romantics, some were people we would like to be and some people we would never talk to, some were loving husbands and some wife beaters, some never felt fear, some were too afraid to acknowledge it. But god, but god, all of them were Men.

So how does one describe this feat, for me the closest word that comes to mind is BALIDAN, its a word that has as far as I know no perfect equivalent in English. Sacrifice has nothing of the romance and nobility of the Hindi word and yet you realise that these 600, they were all like you and me. This bloodletting wasn't confined to a certain class or clan, these boys weren't a handpicked lot, it is what they achieved that made them select. And that is why Kargil touched such a cord among the common Indian. For the first time this lost generation saw their country differently, some were amazed that there were among them people who thought it was worth dying for, fighting for India. That this land had something, the spirit of Kargil, the real victory of Kargil, is that awakening,

Col Thapar feels he can sense his son's presence there, soldiers posted here feel that the spirits of the dead wander these hills and valleys. Yes high up there is an air of the supernormal that puts you on edge. While I was there, each night I would sit out on a chair and just stare at the hills above me, the moon light making them frightening and beautiful at the same time. I would think of the young men who had won back these mountains, written their names in blood on them and then it was easier to understand, logical, yes they owned them now.

Here, long after we have lived our worthless lives and are forgotten, there would be people who would look at these silent hills and remember with awe the men who had conquered them, and that awe will be their monument. These hills of Kargil are hunting grounds now of those glorious 600, who helped us rediscover an India we thought we had a lost forever.

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 29 Jul 2012 07:53

Gan Malik remembering Kargil.

Kargil: 13 years after

The government may have forgotten the Kargil war, but in military history, it will go down as a saga of unmatched bravery, grit and determination. The army responded with alacrity and with its characteristic steadfastness and perseverance. How will it fight the next one? Not differently. Because the Indian soldier is a remarkable human being: spiritually evolved, mentally stoic and sharp, physically hardy and skilled. And his institution remains proud of its traditions of selflessness, devotion to duty, sacrifice and valour.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 25 May 2015 09:38

I nearly started a new thread. It is now 16 years since the Kargil war and I thought it is better to resurrect this thread. I have located old issues of Magazines I bought during the war for war news. I will scan some articles and memories that are relevant.

The war was fought from about May 4th 1999 to July 26th 1999. So much has happened since then but let me reminisce briefly.

Begore the Kargil war - BRF was full of discussions about th 1998 Pokhran tests.

Then came Kargil

Before discussion about Kargil ended, we had the hijacking of IC 814 - 1999 to 2000

In 2001 we had 9-11 and the Parliament attack, followed by the mobilization without war

From 2002 to 2010 we had some of the worst terrorist attacks in (recent) history

vaibhav.n · Post by **vaibhav.n** » 25 May 2015 16:38

The young officer mentioned in the NDTV article is what inspired the cliff face assault in a famous movie...

His citation:

Lieutenant Neikezhakuo Kenguruse, 2 Rajputana Rifles, was the Ghatak Platoon Commander during the attack on Area Black Rock on the night of 28 June 1999. Lieutenant Kenguruse volunteered to undertake a daring commando mission of attacking a well-sited enemy machine gun nest, on a cliff face, which was heavily interfering with all the approaches to the main objective of the battalion. As the commando team scaled the cliff face, it came under intense mortar and automatic fire inflicting heavy casualties. Lieutenant Kenguruse sustained a splinter injury in his abdomen. Bleeding profusely but undeterred, he urged his men to carry on.

On reaching the final cliff face, the commando team was halted by a sheer rock wall that separated them from the enemy machine gun post. The officer took off his shoes to get a good grip and scaled the rock wall along with a rocket launcher and fired at the bunker. Unmindful of personal safety, the officer charged at the enemy bunker and personally killed two men with his rifle and another two with his commando knife in hand-to-hand combat before succumbing to his injuries. By his dare devil act, Lieutenant Kenguruse single-handedly neutralised the enemy bunker, which held up the battalion's progress. For conspicuous gallantry and supreme sacrifice, Lieutenant Neikezhakuo Kenguruse was honoured with the Maha Vir Chakra, posthumously.

ShauryaT · Post by **ShauryaT** » 25 May 2015 16:54

Shiv: Looking forward to the old articles you have. TIA.

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 26 May 2015 08:37

From Outlook Magazine, July 26 1999

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 26 May 2015 14:10

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 26 May 2015 14:11

shiv · Post by **shiv** » 26 May 2015 14:13