Today, 23 years ago the Kargil war is won and many soldiers paid the ultimate price, one soldier Keishing Clifford Nongrum from Shillong paid the ultimate price for the nation, I still remember his funeral, as a young kid I attended it, his body was brought in fire brigade ground flowers from helicopter dropping over his coffin.
"On the night of 30 June/1 July 1999, in the operations to capture Point 4812, Capt. Keishing Clifford Nongrum was tasked to assault the feature from the southeastern direction. Capt. Nongrum led his column over the near-impossible vertical feature. On reaching the top, his column encountered strong enemy opposition. The enemy was well entrenched in interconnected bunkers, carved out of boulders, and remained invulnerable to even artillery fire. The enemy pinned Capt. Nongrum's column was down with heavy and accurate automatic fire for about two hours. On seeing the futility of their own fire against the fortified bunkers, Capt. Nongrum, with utter disregard for his personal safety, charged through the fire zone.
Closing in with the first bunker, he threw grenades into it and killed six enemy soldiers. He then tried to snatch the universal machine gun of the enemy from the bunker and received a volley of bullets. The audacious action of Capt. Nongrum stunned the enemy, giving valuable reaction time to his troops to close in and finally clear the position. Though severely wounded, Capt. Nongrum refused to be evacuated and fought valiantly till he succumbed to his injuries. This act resulted in the ultimate capture of Point 4812.
For conspicuous gallantry and supreme sacrifice, Capt. Keishing Clifford Nongrum was honored with the Maha Vir Chakra(the second-highest military decoration), posthumously."
Lest we Forget. Jai Hind.
