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Tuesday, July 26, 2016

remembering real heroes who gave their present for our tomorrow : Kargil Divas : July 26 !!

From Thiruvarangam temple,  Rockfort temple and more – you have so many landmarks – yet, next time you are at Trichy, do visit this memorial on the Collector Office Road.   We have seen Cine heroes donning role of  Army Jawans and applaud them too (the stories of dons too become big hits !) –  that is tinseldom – in real life there are some real heroes !! In our history books, we have read about 3 battles of Panipat, Plassey, Arcot and more …..will we ever read of Tololing or  Kargil ! ~ on every 26th of July, it is our duty to remember those brave souls.

This famous son of the Nation hailed from the tiny island of Rameswaram.  His father Lt. Colonel Adi Mariappan died in a road accident in Bangalore on 1989 while serving in the Indian Peace Keeping Force during Operation Pawan in Sri Lanka. He reached bigger heights, literally.  Acting Major Saravanan, the hero led a small assault group when he fell," sources say.  Major M Sarvanan, the hero of Batalik, led a platoon up the Jubar Hills on May 29. While he was able to take back two bunkers the rest of Jubar Hills was under enemy control. One of the platoon members accompanying Maj Sarvanan and the only one to survive the attack, was Naik Shatrughan. He was hit on his legs three times and it took him ten days to crawl back to base. He gave the unit the information of how Maj Sarvanan died after killing at least four of the enemy in hand-to -hand combat. Naik Shatrughan later died in the field hospital because of gangrene. Maj Sarvanan possibly was  the first officer to fall in the Kargil conflict. The attack led by him came in the early stages of the conflict when adequate information was not available. There was little artillery support and no aircraft cover. Nation's third highest wartime gallantry award VIR CHAKRA was awarded to Major Mariappan Sarvanan on 15th  August 1999.

July 26 is Kargil Vijay Diwas ~ a day to remembered by the Nation.  17 years ago, this beautiful landscape was the site of a bloody war that claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers from India who fell fighting valiantly and killing Pakistani intruders.   Kargil war came to an end on July 26, 1999 after India took over command of the outposts from the Pakistani intruders and wrested Kargil back from their hands. Seventeen years ago, Kargil happened in the backdrop of an outstanding peace initiative by the then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee who went to Lahore and held talks with his counterpart Nawaz Sharif. The apparent bonhomie between the two leaders could hardly conceal the underlying rancour of the Pakistani Army which had launched a secret operation occupy glacial heights and cut off the Indian supply route after Zozilla pass in the Himalayan hill.

The capture of Tiger Hill signalled India’s victory in the short but sharp war between India and Pakistan over the icy heights of Kargil. It came at the end of a three-month-long battle .  The ‘intruders’ had the advantage of height and fired artillery shells with precision. The men on the ground finally realised the ‘rats’ were not ordinary infiltrators but trained Pakistani army regulars who had set up bunkers and dug their heels in for a long haul.

Great People – Country must remember the Names -  :  Captain Anuj Nayyar, Captain Amol Kalia, Captain Manoj Pande, Captain P.V.Vikram, Captain Vikram Batra, Deputy Commander Sukhbir Singh Yadav, Driver-Soldier Gopinath Moharana,  Flight Engineer Raj Kishore Sahoo, Grenadiar Amardeep, Grenadiar Bajinder Singh Naik Surjeet Singh, Naik Subedar Lal Chand, Naik Vikram Singh, Naik Yoginder Singh, Rifleman Ansuya Prasad Dhayani, Rifleman Bachan Singh, Subedar Sumer Singh Rathore, Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, Squadron Leader Rajiv Pundir, Squadron Leader Lal Singh, Squadron Leader Ojha, Zrfn Man Singh,  Kaushal Yadav in the history books of the school curriculum.   The illustrious list includes all the  527 heroes who sacrificed their future for protecting the honour of the Nation….. yes these are some of the names of Indian jawans and officers who made the supreme sacrifice in the battle field of Kargil.
Kargil - pic credit : Yahoo

Kargil War was fought on the high glaciers of Himalayas between May and July 1999 –Tiger Hill or Point 5353, a mountain in the Drass-Kargil area of Jammu & Kashmir, India was the subject of the most famous battle.   WAR is never to be craved for, it causes innumerable and irreparable losses to both the warring sides.  But no Nation can afford to forget the sacrifices of its warriors.   Kargil has lessons for both, India and Pakistan.   The peaks of Tololing and Tiger Hill once reverberated in Indian news etched in history.   India would remain a peace loving Nation having good relationship with its neighbours but should remember that there are military adventurist army driven Nations who have the propensity to engage in conflicts notwithstanding any episodic peace rhetoric.  The Nation needs to remain prepared and strong militarily and in terms of civil defence measures but should not never get buoyed by war calls- and the following read in the Facebook page of Indian Army Fans is worthy of reading again and again.

If you can't be a Soldier, help a Soldier. If you can't fight at the border, fight the chaos in your neighbourhood. If you can't nurse a soldier's wound, wipe the tears of his family members. If you can’t feed a soldier, pray he sleeps indoors tonight. If you can’t thank him personally, thank his parents. If you can’t help him get back, make sure his body gets home, with all due respect and much more. If you can’t be a soldier, thank them everyday. If you can’t be a soldier, encourage your child to be one. If you can't be a Soldier, learn to atleast respect one.

Today, is the time, we remember the martyrs of Kargil. Jai Jawan, Jai Hind………

Saluting the Warriors saving our Nation…. 
With Great respect & love to Indian army Jawans –

S. Sampathkumar.
26th July 2016.


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