Kargil Vijay Diwas: Remembering Capt Saurabh Kalia and his patrol, the most heart-wrenching story of war's first martyrs

Kargil Vijay Diwas 2023: India’s successful Operation Vijay clinched back positions from the enemy’s clutches at altitudes of 5000 metres, in the extreme cold, rarified air and torturous terrain. 527 soldiers were martyred in the Kargil War. 22-year-old Captain Saurabh Kalia and his patrol were the first martyrs of the war, whose heart-wrenching story can never be forgotten. 

Capt Kalia and his patrol of 5 soldiers were captured alive after an encounter with the Pakistani army on May 15, 1999. They were subjected to inhumane treatment before being killed. Their mutilated bodies were sent back to India and the post-mortem reports revealed details that stunned the entire country. 

The heart-wrenching story of Capt Kalia’s patrol

Commissioned into the army in December 1998 from the CDS, Captain Kalia got posting in Kargil with the 4 JAT regiment in January 1999. Nearly 5 months later, the young officer volunteered to go to the ‘Bajrang Post’ at 13,000-14,000 ft to check reported infiltration by Pakistani forces. Kalia’s three patrols in the Kaksar area in the first fortnight of May 1999 proved vital as they gave information about the large-scale intrusion. 

On May 15, Capt Kalia and 5 other soldiers - Sepoy Arjunram Baswana, Sepoy Mula Ram Bidiasar, Sepoy Naresh Singh Sinsinwar, Sepoy Bhanwar Lal Bagaria and Sepoy Bhika Ram Mudh - confronted the army. They were captured alive after they ran out of bullets after a fierce encounter. What happened next was unparalleled in terms of brutality in wars between India and Pakistan. 

The news of Kalia and his team was first aired on Askardu radio in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). Pakistan handed the mutilated bodies of the soldiers to India on June 9. Post-mortem revealed that the young officer’s body had a gunshot wound in the temple region, a lacerated wound probably due to blunt injury over both lips and mouth; fractures in both bones in the left forearm; fracture metacarpals of the right hand; lacerated wound on shoulder and both forearms; lacerated wound left eye and fractured nasal bones, PTI had reported. 

India was outraged at the inhumane torture of the soldiers and termed the act as a “violation of international conventions” of war. Kalia’s father kept fighting for justice for years but the Pakistan government denied the charges of atrocities. 

Before going to the battlefield, Capt Kalia had told his mother, “‘Ma, tum dekhna ek din aisa kaam kar jaunga ki saari duniya mein mera naam hoga’ (mother, you will see one day I will do such a deed that the whole world will acknowledge it).” 

(Inputs from PTI)