Drass War Memorial: bringing back memories of Kargil war

Azhar Qadri
Drass (Kashmir), Jul 27 (PTI) Every day dozens of
vehicles carrying tourists make a stopover at Drass War
Memorial, in the northern Indian state Jammu and Kashmir, - a
grim reminder to what happened in this region in the last year
of the previous millennium.
For centuries, temperatures in winters plunge to the
extreme - minus 40 degrees Celsius. In the summer of 1999,
this haunting insignia for the remote and sparsely populated
Drass town, changed forever.
Despite the desolation of this town, with barren and
unending mountain peaks, Drass is the new name emerging in
conflict tourism in recent years.
Each day, families come to this memorial to know
about what happened during the war, take pictures, write their
comments and re-embark on their journey. Soldiers become
guides providing information about the events of the war.
The memorial, on NH-1D, includes a huge epitaph with
names of all the officers and soldiers who died in the 1999
war.
"This war memorial brings back the memories of the
sacrifices of our officers and soldiers during the war. If
someone travels by road, he is reminded that this is the
place where young men sacrificed their lives in line of duty,"
Col Deepak Verma, commanding officer of 298 Field Regiment,
said.
In May 1999, the army mobilised its infantry
battalions, which were engaged in counter-insurgency
operations in Kashmir Valley, and its heavy artillery,
including Bofors guns and moved them 150 km from Srinagar
through potholed dusty roads which snake through hundreds of
Himalayan mountains. It was the war for Kargil, to save Ladakh from being
cut-off from the Kashmir division as Pakistani forces, which
included officers and soldiers from its Northern Light
Infantry, commandos from Special Services Group and militants
from a spectrum of groups, had barricaded themselves in the
fortified bunkers in the upper mountain reaches on this side
of the Line of Control.
Hawaldar Sukhwinder Singh from 14 Sikh battalion is the
briefing non commissioned officer assigned with the task of
attending tourists and providing them information.
"A lot of people come here every day, they pay their
tributes to the officers and soldiers of Kargil war," Singh
said, adding, a diary maintained at the memorial shows
visitors from all corners of the country coming here.
The Manoj Padey War Gallery at the memorial complex is a
window into the past. Named after a captain of Gorkha Rifles
who died in the war, it has pictures of soldiers marching on
the mountain slopes, soldiers cooking food in the upper
reaches during the war and weapons recovered from the
Pakistani forces.
There is also a picture of a Pakistani soldier being
arrested from a mountain redoubt and another of Captain Vikram
Batra, who became a poster boy of the war, with a captured
Pakistani heavy machine gun.
Then there is a picture of a dead Pakistani officer --
Captain Karnal Sher Khan from Northern Light Infantry -- whose
valour impressed the Indian Army so much so that it asked its
Pakistani counterpart to honour him with Nishan-e-Haider, the
highest military award in Pakistan.
Khan was later felicitated posthumously. It was the war for Kargil, to save Ladakh from being
cut-off from the Kashmir division as Pakistani forces, which
included officers and soldiers from its Northern Light
Infantry, commandos from Special Services Group and militants
from a spectrum of groups, had barricaded themselves in the
fortified bunkers in the upper mountain reaches on this side
of the Line of Control.
Hawaldar Sukhwinder Singh from 14 Sikh battalion is the
briefing non commissioned officer assigned with the task of
attending tourists and providing them information.
"A lot of people come here every day, they pay their
tributes to the officers and soldiers of Kargil war," Singh
said, adding, a diary maintained at the memorial shows
visitors from all corners of the country coming here.
The Manoj Padey War Gallery at the memorial complex is a
window into the past. Named after a captain of Gorkha Rifles
who died in the war, it has pictures of soldiers marching on
the mountain slopes, soldiers cooking food in the upper
reaches during the war and weapons recovered from the
Pakistani forces.
There is also a picture of a Pakistani soldier being
arrested from a mountain redoubt and another of Captain Vikram
Batra, who became a poster boy of the war, with a captured
Pakistani heavy machine gun.
Then there is a picture of a dead Pakistani officer --
Captain Karnal Sher Khan from Northern Light Infantry -- whose
valour impressed the Indian Army so much so that it asked its
Pakistani counterpart to honour him with Nishan-e-Haider, the
highest military award in Pakistan.
Khan was later felicitated posthumously. At the gallery, there are also remnants of the
mortar shells fired by Pakistani forces on Indian positions
and convoys.
Gopal Krishnan, a retired man from south Indian city
Bangalore, who was on his way to Leh to spend holidays with
his family, listens patiently as an army major briefs him at
the gallery.
"My son called me and asked me to visit this memorial.
He had seen it on TV that some function was being held here,"
said Krishnan, who was accompanied by his wife Savitri and
sister-in-law Meena.
The major is a veteran of the war having fought in
the Batalik sub-sector.
"We had read about this war in newspapers and watched
it on TV, but here when you hear from those men who
experienced the whole thing, it seems so real, its so tragic,"
said Meena, a visitor from western Indian city Mumbai.