IMMORTALS OF KARGIL EP-07
🇮🇳Captain Saurabh Kalia🇮🇳
The Jat Regiment
🇮🇳Story of THE FIRST KARGIL MARTYR🇮🇳
Operation Vijay
Who doesn't know him? We all do .
Read his full story here.
@megirish2001 @adgpi
🇮🇳Captain Saurabh Kalia🇮🇳
The Jat Regiment
🇮🇳Story of THE FIRST KARGIL MARTYR🇮🇳
Operation Vijay
Who doesn't know him? We all do .
Read his full story here.
@megirish2001 @adgpi
Capt Saurabh Kalia was only 22 years old when he was captured by the Pakistani Army in May 1999 that marked the start of the Kargil War.
After almost as many years as he lived, Capt Kalia is yet to receive justice and his helpless father continues to fight a lonely battle with little or no support.
On 15 May 1999 Capt Saurabh Kalia was tasked to lead a patrol to Bajrang post, which was part of the unit’s defences but was usually vacated during the winter.
Capt Kalia and five other soldiers – Sepoys Arjun Ram, Bhanwar Lal Bagaria, Bhika Ram, Moola Ram and Naresh Singh set off for the Bajrang post as planned.
After a continuous crossfire with Pakistan armed forces from across the LOC, Capt Saurabh Kalia and his troops ran out of ammunition. They reported this matter to the base camp and called for reinforcements.
However, before the troops could arrive, they were surrounded by a platoon of Pakistani rangers and captured alive.The Indian troops found no trace of the patrol party and launched a massive search operation to locate them.
Meanwhile, Radio Skardu of Pakistan announced that Capt Saurabh Kalia had been captured by Pakistani troops. This event led to the discovery of hundreds of guerrillas, who had established fortified positions on the peaks of the hills deep inside the Indian side of the
Line of control, with sophisticated equipment and supply lines back to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir.
Capt Saurabh Kalia and his men were in captivity from 15 May 1999 – 7 June 1999 for about twenty-two days and subjected to torture as evident from injuries to their bodies when they were handed over by the Pakistani Army on 9 June 1999.
The postmortem examination revealed that the Pakistani forces had tortured their prisoners in gross violation of the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war.
Lt Kalia's brother, Vaibhav, now 25, identified his body when it arrived in a coffin wrapped in the national flag in Palampur. Saurabh's face, he recalls, "was the size of my fingers, his eyebrows were the only visible feature, no eyes, no jaw, there were cigarette burns…
it was very bad. My parents couldn't have seen him."
The Kalia family has since been demanding that Pakistan should be brought to book & those responsible for the act be punished under international laws as the violence meted out to the 6 soldiers stood against the protocols of the Geneva Convention.
Twenty years later, as the country celebrates Kargil Vijay, the Kalia family looks at the cheque that their 22-year-old son had signed for the last time, as if signing an epitaph, before leaving for Kargil.
He had asked his parents to encash the cheque from his bank account in his absence. They did not do so and thus it is the last piece of writing they have of Capt Saurabh Kalia, their son who would have turned 23 a few weeks later.
Capt Saurabh Kalia was a valiant and committed soldier who laid down his life in the service of the nation. Capt Saurabh Kalia is survived by his father Dr Narinder K Kalia, mother Smt Vijaya Kalia and brother Shri Vaibhav Kalia.
