To the Theater of War

It is Kargil which evokes war memories in us but it was in Drass that the major battle was won. From what I heard Kargil town itself was probably not involved in any battle but Drass was the epicenter of a great battle which lead to the Indian forces capturing two strategic hills here. One of them, which we were seeing to our far left, was the Tiger Hill and straight ahead of us, behind the war memorial, was the Tololing hill.

We were getting hungry as we were approaching Kargil when our guide insisted that we stop at Drass and look at the war memorial. I should thank him for this. It gave us an idea of what the soldiers have achieved during the Kargil conflict and it also let us pay our humble respects to the memory of so many brave men who dies during the conflict.

Until you actually are at Drass, you will not realize the magnitude of what was done. The recapture of the Tololing hill is nothing short of a miracle. You will understand it when you see the hill. It is a hill which has no cover at all. I mean it is a hill with no major boulders, no trees or as the Americans would say it, no nothing. The enemy sitting at the top and probably having night scopes would find any soldier trying to get on the hill as easy target. There is no place to hide. Added to it, the hill offers a wonderful view of the highway. The highway that connects Srinagar to Leh. With bazookas or some rocket launchers, the enemy could blast any vehicle traversing this road and effectively blocking all access to Leh from Srinagar. I was intrigued and checked how the battle was won. From what I could understand, the Indian forces from an hill the other side of the highway started firing shells using the highly effective but unfortunately infamous Bofors guns. Under the cover of heavy shelling and braving the enemy fire, Indian soldiers climbed the hill and retook it. An feat of extraordinary courage. Our guide was saying how the engineers helped by building some makeshift bridges to help carry the Bofors guns to whichever place required.

The visit inside the memorial was a poignant one. Pictures of the hill and of soldiers who lost their lives during this battle are displayed here, as well as some new clippings. It also gives a list of those who were awarded the bravery awards. I came to know that when a soldier is awarded a Paramvir Chakra, he is above all ranks. In the sense that everyone in the army, including the Indian President, who is the C-in-C of the army, must salute him. It doesn't matter what his actual rank is within the army. All his superiors need to salute him. The pride with which the army maintains this place and their hospitality was very touching. They insisted that we have something cool to drink before we left there. Drass is supposed to be the second coldest place on the earth. The day we went was warm but in winter it snows a lot and the highway gets snowed out it seems. It is a tough place for the soldiers, given that they have to contend with the extreme weather and a hostile neighbor. My respect for the soldiers grew manifold after this visit.

We left the memorial in a quite mood to Kargil and reached there for lunch. When we called our respective homes, they were like, "What, you are in Kargil? Is it safe?" It is more than safe and I think after the Kargil war, there are probably few places in India which are safer. We had our lunch and came to the main marketplace to buy some stuff in the evening. Kargil is a stopover town and there is nothing you can consider as beautiful around here. It is a dusty town and the river which flows is muddy. Travellers come to this town enroute to Leh or Srinagar for a night halt but Kargil is more known as a night halt to reach the Zanskar area. Everyone halts here for the night before proceeding to Zanskar. That is a trip which I must do sometime in the future.