Drass (Jammu and Kashmir), July 26 (IANS): The hills of Kargil came alive Sunday night in a glow of yellow lights as India marked the 10th anniversary of its military victory against Pakistan by paying homage to the over 500 soldiers killed while recapturing the treacherous peaks.
In an unprecedented military ceremony of its kind, army officers and soldiers, family members of those killed in the May-July 1999 fighting as well as people of this Shia-dominated region along the border of Jammu and Kashmir paid moving tributes to the martyrs of Kargil.
The finale of the two-day ceremony was a musical show by military bands drawn from all over the country followed by a spectacular lighting of Tiger Hill and Tololing, two of the strategic peaks Pakistani Islamist insurgents and camouflaged troops quietly took over before being beaten back in two months of bloody and at times hand to hand fighting.
An army officer said the military had never before organized such a function, which brought together families of soldiers from all over India to see for themselves from close range the imposing mountains where their loved ones died.
A candle light ceremony was also held at the War Memorial in Drass, now a throbbing town of 2,000 people that came under intense artillery fire from the Pakistanis in 1999 before the Indians hit back.
"It is an experience no soldier can ever forget," said Lt. Gen. (Retd) Amar Nath Aul, who was a brigadier in 1999 and headed the Mountain Brigade that pushed back the intruders in the Drass sector.
"I salute the untiring commitment of my boys who fought against all odds and did not deter in laying down their lives when it came to protecting the country," he added.
As officers and soldiers as well as families of many of the martyrs placed wreaths at the War Memorial early in the day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saluted those killed in the conflict.
"I join the entire nation in paying homage to the martyrs of the Kargil war. They sacrificed their lives in defence of Indian unity and integrity," the prime minister said at the India Gate War Memorial in the national capital.
Like in the better known Tiger Hill and Tololing, heavy fighting took place in 1999 for the hills off Drass, the second coldest inhabited place in the world located about 60 km from Kargil town.
The entire region falls in Kargil district, giving the 1999 military showdown the name of "Kargil war".
The detection of Pakistan-backed Islamist insurgents and regular soldiers on the hills by nomads led to full-fledged fighting between Indian forces and the heavily armed infiltrators, almost triggering the fourth full-scale India-Pakistan war.
The battle for Drass was immortalised by the death of the young Captain Vikram Batra of 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles who took part in the capture of two peaks and then died fighting for Point 4,875.
He came under attack while trying to rescue an injured officer. His final words, according to his colleagues, were "Jai Mata Di"!
July 26 is annually celebrated as 'Kargil Diwas' or Kargil Day. Some 200,000 Indian soldiers took part in the Kargil war, about 30,000 of them in the Kargil-Drass sector.
More than 500 Indian soldiers were killed in the two-month fighting.
The intruders, who had come for a long haul, came as close as 300 metres to a key highway connecting Srinagar with Leh and the border town of Kargil.
Said another officer: "Many families are sure to leave the place with a heavy heart but they will have the satisfaction of knowing that the army has not forgotten their sons, brothers and husbands."