Mumbai, Jan 22 (IANS): Retired army officer Yogendra Singh Yadav has shared how he fought for 22 days, and how difficult it was for them to fight at the height of 17,000 feet at Tiger Hill, which is Drass-Kargil area of Ladakh, and lose his soldiers during the Kargil war.

He appeared on the singing reality show 'Indian Idol' as a celebrity guest for the 'Republic Day' special episode, and recalled the Kargil War of 1999.

During a conversation, singer and judge, Vishal Dadlani said: "Today, we can breathe and live freely because of such brave army officers."

He also revealed that by receiving the Param Vir Chakra award for the Kargil war at the age of 19, he became the youngest person to get the award.

As the army and navy officers supported their favourite contestant on the show, Yogendra also came in support of Chirag Kotwal and appreciated his performance on the patriotic track 'Hai Preet Jahan Ki Reet Sada' from the 1970 film 'Purab Aur Paschim' starring Manoj Kumar and Saira Bano.

Himesh Reshmmiyan also praised him by saying: "Today is an important day and the way you sang it gave us goosebumps. You sang it so well and felt every word of the song while you were performing. You hit the chords just right, we will always remember that."

The top 8 contestants, including Rishi Singh from Ayodhya, Bidipta Chakraborty, Debosmita Roy, Senjuti Das, Sonakshi Kar from Kolkata, Chirag Kotwal from Jammu, Navdeep Wadali from Amritsar, Shivam Singh amazed the judges and guests with their performance on patriotic tracks. 'Indian Idol 13' airs on Sony Entertainment Television.