Army rejoices recapture of Tiger Hill 10 years ago
10th anniversary of the battle at Drass to be celebrated on July 26
— PHOTO: PTI/Subhav Shukla
CELEBRATION TIME: An Army band performs at the Drass war memorial on Sunday. Tiger Hill is seen in the background.
DRASS: The recapture of the Tiger Hill was a turning point in the Kargil conflict, and thereafter the Indian Army did not look back.
Sunday marked the 10th anniversary of the recapture of the formidable 5,062-metre-high mountain top from Pakistani Army regulars in “Operation Vijay.”
“Today is the 10th anniversary of our winning back the Tiger Hill from the Pakistani Army regulars. The Tiger Hill and Tololing range victories can be said to be the turning point of the war, since then on, there was nothing to stop the Indian Army till the war ended on July 26,” a senior officer of 56 Brigade told PTI here.
Celebrations were on at the present locations of the units that clinched the victories.
“We will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the battle at Drass on July 26, the day when the battle ended in favour of India and we wrested all our positions from the Pakistanis,” he said.
The Kargil-based 8 Mountain Division of the Indian Army is planning to honour the units, the kin of the martyrs and the gallantry award winners.
“We have invited more than 450 people, including the representatives of the units, who took part in the action, the families of the martyrs and the senior commanders of the region at that time,” 8 Mountain Division Commander Major General Suresh Khajuria said.
The Army Chief and all senior commanders would take part in the event.
Units from the regiments of 18 Grenadiers, 2 Naga and 8 Sikh were involved in the action to recapture the feature dominating the National Highway A1 (NHA1). From there, the Pakistani troops shelled Indian convoys bound for Kargil and Leh so as to disrupt the Indian supply lines towards Siachen and the whole of Ladakh region.
Two battalions launched the attack on the night of July 4-5, 1999, and by next morning, they evicted the Pakistani troops belonging to 12 Northern Light Infantry, Special Forces, Engineers and Artillery from the feature. Yogendra Yadav of 18 Grenadiers was awarded the Param Vir Chakra for gallantry in the intense battle for the peak.
Meanwhile, the Army is building strong defences to protect the troops in the Kargil-Drass sector from being hit by enemy artillery shells and heavy weapon fire at the Line of Control (LoC).
“To strengthen our defences on the ground and protect our soldiers from enemy fire, we have built strong defences, which can keep away enemy fire,” a senior Army officer at one of the forward bases on the LoC told PTI in Kargil.
“The newly-built defences are fully covered from both sides with two parallel stonewalls, a thick over-head protection which can withstand any kind of fire from the enemy,” he said.
The Army went in for these new types of defences, as stonewalls at posts facing the enemy at a close distance were not effective in sheltering the troops from the shells fired in the air-burst mode, with the splinters having caused the soldiers damage, he said. “Now even artillery shells fired in the air-burst mode would prove ineffective, as our soldiers would be fully covered in all sides,” the officer said.
At some posts in the Kargil-Dras region, Indian and Pakistani soldiers are deployed at distances as close as 50 metres.
The new defences, the officer said, had enough space for the soldiers to move along the post. “The length runs over 200 metres, covering almost the whole post, and the soldiers can move all along it with their weapons and can fire at enemy post.”
He said the new defences had various openings from where troops could retaliate in the event of shelling and firing without exposing themselves.
“We have openings from where our troops can fire at different angles and from all types of weapons in our inventory, and this will give us an edge over the enemy.”
The defences were built in two months by the battalions deployed in the post. “Various other units are also coming to have a look at the defence, and hopefully, there would be many other such defences built in the area,” he said.
As for the strengthening of the defences along the LoC, 8 Mountain Division Commander Major General S. Khajuria said: “Strengthening of posts and bunkers is a continuous process, and it is done by both the sides to improve their position.”
Every summer, both sides upgrade their bunkers to provide protection from enemy fire. — PTI
