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| ‘Agonizing memoirs of a war still irks him’ Jammu | | | Vaibhavi Chandel
EARLY TIMES REPORT
Jammu, Mar 2: The soldiers on the borders live a hard life while protecting us form the enemies, but sometimes the sacrifices made by the soldiers remain unrecognized and that is a real set back for a soldier.
A spark neglected burnt the house and same holds true for other things in life. Sometimes a small mistake invites a catastrophe and that sends chill across the spine.
It was only a small mistake and that too only of litting a cigarette which consumed the lives of several soldiers. It is a tale of one fateful late night, under the cover of darkness and amidst snowfall on high mountains, that litting of a cigarette resulted in the death of several soldiers.
It was only the speak of the cigarette, that a gun rattle from the soldiers on the other side started and it resulted in the death of four soldiers on the spot and critical injuries to several other,. In the freezing cold, the soldiers were left in the pool of blood.
The memories of this incidence are still like a nightmare for a retired Jammu based
Subedaar Roshan Lal Wazir of 12 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry. For him it is impossible to forget the nightmarish experience that they encountered while capturing the strategic Point 4812 in the Yaldor Sub Sector in Batalik during Kargil war.
Not only the dreadful memories, the injuries which the ex-soldier received that night had left him 80 percent disabled. A person who once fought bravely with the enemies today is in despair as he scarcely manages to move from his house to small grocery shop separated by a door.
“I am unable to forget that night. When I am alone and all of a sudden the thought of that night comes to me, it makes me upset. We were fighting for Point 4812, we were crawling up in the mid-night and we had no idea as we were just a few feet away from the enemy bunkers as u it was pitch dark and it was barely impossible to see anything. We were not even aware that such a big tragedy is waiting for us, unaware of the enemy bunkers, our lieutenant lit up a cigarette, while others started murmuring as
They camped to relax”, said Roshan.
“As he lit the cigarette, the spark was enough to intimate the enemies about our positions and they started firing. As we all were in relaxing mood, so it took us some time to understand the situation, as we get back to our positions , the bullets from the enemy’s bunker led to the disaster leaving four soldiers dead on spot”, he adds.
" For winning the peak, lieutenant, three JCOs and 3 other ranks sacrificed their life for the motherland on that fateful night. It was around 3 am on July 1, 1999. While we were
retaliating the gunfire, lieutenant gunned down one infiltrator. When the dawn was about to break, he got a bullet in the head and collapsed in my arms , " he adds.
"I got nine bullets in left arm and leg besides various splinters of rock and grenade,” he said with a flash of valour on his face.
“After the sun was up, I started giving cover fire to the rest of our soldier and made them to move ahead and it took me around one hour to descend down 30-35 meters. By that time my vision had blurred due to heavy blood loss and unbearable pain. I was brought back to the base camp in the evening,” Roshan said.
Roshan remained hospitalised at Kargil, Chandigarh and Himachal for more than six months to recover.
Basically hailing from Doda district, Roshan lately took a step to shift from his home place in search of job as being physically handicapped it was just impossible for him to find a job there. However, more than a decade down the line, his family comprising two sons and wife are living a small house in Bantalab in Jammu.
He gets a monthly pension but regrets that his sacrifice and bravery with which he fought enemy was not recognized.
“I filed documents for the gas agency as asked by the army headquarter but did not get any. I asked the reasons to which I was told that the same were distributed to the families of martyrs only,” he said.
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