O YA YA !! KARGIL 25 YEARS...

Excerpts from Dateline Kargil by Gaurav Sawant

Meanwhile, at the 13 Jak Rif, Lt. Col. YK Joshi was bending over a contour map in his tent. A faint glow from a small battery-lit bulb made his bearded face appear fierce. Captains Vikram Batra and Sanjiv Jamwal stood erect – their faces taut. It was the night of June 19 and the two had been tasked to lead their respective companies into the final assault to capture Peak 5140. There was a half – kilometre climb from the base to the hill top and as the two synchronised their watches, they realised they had less than 8 hours to complete the task.

Death or victory in 8 hours. The H-hour was 2130hours. One hour before going for the attack, Jamwal and Batra shook hands with Colonel Joshi and went over the final plans all over again. Jamwal was leading the Bravo Company and Batra the Charlie Company. The last light in the high altitude area was at 2030.

Joshi had given the two officers a free hand to do what they wanted but had asked for only one thing. “Be safe and do it before first light.” The two officers knew if they did not take the peak by dawn and reach the top, the enemy would catch them sitting ducks and shoot them at will. Durga mata ki jai – the officers and the jawans prayed before the two Companies began climbing the Drass mountain silently.

The artillery guns had opened fire on the enemy bunkers on Peak 5140 at 2030 hours itself. The aim was to make the enemy keep their heads down as long as possible enabling the two Companies (120 men in each Company) climb as high as possible without being detected. There was a chance of the Indian soldiers getting injured by their own artillery fire but then there was no alternative.

But moments after the artillery guns stopped firing, the enemy soldiers came out of their bunkers and opened fire on the advancing Indian troops. Batra and Jamwal realised that there was no way they could climb in the face of such an intense carpet – firing by the enemy machine gunners. And the two youngsters (Batra was 24 and Jamwal 25) had decided they would not let their men walk into the jaws of death if avoidable. They radioed back to the base asking for more artillery fire till they reached 100 meters from their target. The Commanders at the based were foxed, even worried, but then in war, both Batra and Jamwal were the Commanders and the final decision lay with them because they were leading the assault.

“Open fire,” the Commanders at the base ordered. Batra and Jamwal ordered their men to slink down on the ground and clasp their helmets tighter around their heads. “Splinters rise at an angle of 45 degrees. We will crouch lower than that and advance,” he ordered. The shelling by the Indian artillery forced the Pakistani troops to rush back into their bunkers again. When they reached 100 meters from their targets, the officers asked the base to stop the artillery fire.

And then with a wild cry of Durga Mata ki Jai, the two Companies attacked the enemy bunkers along the peak from two sides. Caught unawares, the enemy goofed initially but quickly organised themselves into a strong defence. Batra took lead and charged into the nearest bunker, entering it while lobbing a hand grenade. He moved to the next bunker without stopping to see the damage to the first.

Impressed by the charge of their young officers, the troops attacked with renewed vigour, one after the other Batra and Jamwal cleared seven bunkers killing 6 enemy soldiers. Others either lay injured or tried to flee in the middle of the night, falling to their deaths, from 16,900 feet.

In the charge, one soldier lost his hand. In midst of all the firing, Jamwal pulled the man behind a protruding rock and bandaged the stump that remained. “Both Jamwal and that soldier were crying because the soldier was an excellent basket ball player. Jamwal kept telling the soldier to have faith in God and believe in destiny. Nothing will happen. And nothing did. The soldier survived,” Colonel Joshi later told. Soon after bandaging his hand, Jamwal went back and joined Batra in the attack.

That night, there was no stopping the boys. The anger pent up inside them was coming out and the Pakistani soldiers just kept retreating. The JAKRIF boys were not far from their target. Batra looked at his watch 0325 hours, it was still an hour before first light at 0430 hours when suddenly Jamwal screamed out loud.

The wireless set crackled. The 25 years old’s scream was heard by all the Commanders, sitting on the edge of their chairs in the underground operations room. ‘O Ya Ya’ the scream was music to the ears of the Commanders. The ridge bunker had been taken. ‘O Ya Ya’ was the victory signal chosen by Jamwal to communicate the success (It was the Hunter Squadron war cry in NDA, and Jamwal was a Hunter). Not a single man was lost and Jamwal was ecstatic. Colonel Joshi began walking towards the peak in the night itself. Before leaving for the assault both Jamwal and Batra had promised him the morning cup of tea on 5140 Peak top and he did not want to miss out on a good cup of tea at 16,962 feet.

On the ridgeline, Jamwal looked a little ahead in the mountains, where he could make out the silhouette of the other Company led by Batra, still fighting on the peak top. But only for a few seconds. The wireless set crackled again and the famous Shahrukh Khan Pepsi one-liner came. 'Yeh Dil Mange More', but it came through the mouth of Captain Vikram Batra.

There was not a single casualty. “With God’s grace, not a single soldier died in the operation”, Joshi said later, his eyes moist. The victory of Peak 5140 again would make to text books on mountain warfare for the manner in which the operation was executed.

On the morning of June 20, a wave of happiness spread over Drass town, now completely inhabited by the army and a small section of the police and CRPF.

Excerpts from Dateline Kargil by Gaurav Sawant