Captain Kalia's parents with his younger brother's family at a memorial inside their home in Palampur. (Express photo by Gurmeet Singh)February 19, 1999: Our PM had his tour to Pak fixed for 20 Feb for peace talks but as per information provided to us by BSF that one of Indian post was assaulted by Pak armed forces but Indian troops beat back the attack on them.
March 2, 1999: Holi was celebrated at Bde and Bn HQs. Paki greet and wish Holi by firing 180 med arty rounds of fire from 1000 hours to 1600 hours. Tamur and Chor Nala guns were opened up…
Captain Saurabh Kalia's handwritten, detailed accounts from his diary is a pithy description of what was unfolding in Kargil in the winter and spring of 1999.
READ | Holding on to memories, a martyr's family on a long journey to rebuild their lives
An officer of 4 Jat Regiment (Infantry), who was posted at Kargil just two months after his commissioning in December 1998, he and five soldiers volunteered to go to Bajrang Post at a height of 14,000 feet to check infiltration in Kaksar area.
And to meet an end that still sends shivers down the spine.
On April 30, 1999, Capt Kalia had last spoken to his mother.Captured alive by Pakistan army on May 15, 1999, Capt Kalia was subjected to unprecedented torture – the autopsy report indicated that his body was burnt with cigarettes, eyes gouged out and punctured, bones and teeth broken, nails clipped, and face assaulted. Before he was shot dead.
