Courageous Capt: Palampur’s son & first martyr of Kargil

Captain Saurabh Kalia, a brave son of Palampur, was the first to make supreme sacrifice in the Kargil War at the age 22. Born in a Punjabi family on June 29, 1976, his parents later settled in Palampur. He did his schooling from DAV Public School, Palampur, and graduated from Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University in 1997.

Capt Saurabh Kalia cleared the Combined Defence Services Examination in August 1997 and was selected for the Indian Military Academy (IMA). After completing his one-year training programme, he was posted in the Kargil sector in Jat Regiment, which is known for its courageous soldiers, fighting several battles and having many medals to its credit.

In May 1999, when the Kargil War started, Capt Saurabh Kalia and his battalion were deputed to the Kaksar Langpa area, where the Indian Army had information about infiltration by Pakistani troops. It took the first half of May for the Army to check the actual situation about the presence of the Pakistani troops in the Indian Territory.

On trail of infiltrators

On May 15, 1999, Capt Kalia was assigned the task to lead a patrol team and check infiltration in the Bajrang post, a station at a height of 13,000-14,000 feet and covered with snow.

When Capt Saurabh Kalia, along with his team, was patrolling the area, Pakistani soldiers opened fire on them. A fierce gunbattle followed and Capt Kalia’s team exhausted their ammunition. They contacted the base camp. However, before reinforcements could arrive, Pakistani soldiers had captured Capt Kalia and his men.

When the reinforcement team arrived, they could not find traces of Indian soldiers despite a massive search operation. As the search was on, the Indian Army noticed hundreds of Pakistani troops with sophisticated weapons sitting on the hill tops. In the meantime, a Pakistani radio station, Skardu, announced that Pakistan army had captured Captain Kalia of the Indian Army, along with five other soldiers.

Tortured in Pak custody

The Pakistan army kept Capt Saurabh Kalia and his men in their custody for 22 days and tortured them brutally to break them physically and mentally. The Pakistan army handed over their mortal remains to Indian officials on June 9, 1999. Wrapped in Tricolour, Capt Kalia’s body arrived at his home town even before his first salary was credited to his account.

When Indian Army officials and Capt Kalia’s younger brother saw their mortal remains, they were shocked to see the torture meted out to the Indian soldiers. Seeing several injuries on their bodies, the Army decided to conduct fresh post-mortem.

The results of post-mortem examination were horrific. The eyes of the soldiers were punctured and removed, ear drums pierced with a hot rod and the nose and lips chipped. There were many burnt cigarette marks on the bodies. Bones were broken and many teeth missing. Their limbs and genitals were amputated. Above all, before handing their bodies to the Indian officials, the soldier were shot in the head.

A father’s struggle

Talking to The Tribune, Dr NK Kalia, father of Capt Saurabh Kalia, said he had moved from pillar to post in past 25 years and approached the Central Government and several national, international organisations to pressure Pakistan to identify, book and punish those who indulged in most heinous inhuman crime and kept his son in captivity for three weeks and subjected him to unprecedented torture.

Dr Kalia added that he was disappointed with the governments, who had ruled the nation in the past 25 years, as none was serious to take up this important matter. They did not initiate efforts to take up the issue with Pakistan during bilateral talks held several times in the past. “Though 25 years have passed, my wounds are yet to be healed. Not only the parents of the soldiers, but the Indian Army and the nation have lost dedicated and honest soldiers,” said a teary-eyed Kalia.

He said there was no doubt as entire world had admitted that the Pakistani army had indulged in the most dastardly acts of burning bodies with cigarettes, piercing ears with hot iron rods, removing eyes, chopping off limbs and private organs of the soldiers, besides inflicting unimaginable physical and mental tortures, still the Government of India had dragged the issue for years and justice was still awaited.

Even after the torture and a heroic sacrifice of Capt Saurabh Kalia for the nation, he had not been given any gallantry award.