Towering temple of Gun Hill pays homage to gods of war
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Chandigarh: A rugged temple cast in the style of a typical hill shrine and fashioned from Kargil's huge rock slabs stands sentinel atop Gun Hill (ex-Point 5140, 16,864 feet) on the Drass LoC.
This is the daunting feature with a vertical cliff drop to the north and east which was assaulted by Bravo and Delta Companies of 13 JAK Rifles (Bravest of the Brave) during the night of June 19-20, 1999, thereby transforming then Lt. Vikram Batra's victory call sign over the radio set into an energising national slogan, 'Yeh Dil Maange More'.
Twenty-six years later, Col Rajesh Adhau, Sena Medal, stood outside the temple, paying homage to Batra and satisfying his curiosity to view the daunting summit where Batra was commended for the first of his two-part citation for the posthumous award of the Param Vir Chakra.
A panting and heaving Adhau uttered only one sentence as he cautiously peered upon Gun Hill's sheer drop: "Can you see this, Vikram (residing in the heavens above).
...this is what you won...hats off to Vikram, hats off to Sanju (Col. Sanjeev S. Jamwal, Vir Chakra) and my 13 JAK Rifles."
At the time of the war, there was no temple. Gun Hill was an unoccupied feature, which was surreptitiously invaded by the 6 NLI (SIKKIS) and converted into bunkered Infantry defences and an Artillery Observation Post, code 'Iftikar'.
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After the war when Indian troops commenced their LoC link patrols, the temple was constructed. Depending upon the faith of a regiment's troops, a small shrine is installed wherever they are posted, even at super-high altitudes such as those of the Kargil LOC, LAC and Siachen's Saltoro ridge.
It is the prayers to his God or Goddess that lends the belief to the soldier that there is no enemy bullet or splinter in the coming hail of fire that will have his name written on it.
As battalions change at those heights, the shrine is re-styled in accordance with the faiths, beliefs and cultural persuasions of freshly-inducted troops. Soldiers require a quiet place to pray and contemplate before they charge into a firestorm. They also pray for the peace of the souls of those comrades who might not return from battle. Whenever the Commanding Officer tours the alpine deployments, he first prays at the post's shrine and expresses gratitude to the Gods / Goddesses for protecting his soldiers and upholding the honour of the nation, regiment and battalion.
Adhau was the RMO for the 13 JAK Rifles during the
Kargil War
. He was one of the very few doctors awarded a gallantry medal --- and not a service medal --- for his courage and battlefield initiative. He insisted on being just 50 m behind the assaulting troops and well within range of the enemy's small-arms fire. Batra, promoted after the fall of Gun Hill to a Captain, had literally died in Adhau's arms when he assaulted the Point 4875 Complex, Mashkoh, on July 7, 1999.
Adhau, who is currently serving with a UN peace-keeping mission in Congo, flew down specially and virtually on a day's notice to make the pilgrimage to Gun Hill.
Unlike the arduous climb from Drass to Gun Hill during the war, the Army has since constructed roads that facilitate speedy troop movements and logistics up the inclines to the LoC, slashing the human and animal load carrier effort. The road benefitted Adhau (who is now 53 and did not do the standard acclimatisation) with a vehicle drive till Rocky Knob and then the remaining part on foot to Gun Hill.
"When I reached the top, I was left in disbelief. How did our soldiers climb such an altitude against an enemy perched on top, and who could kill them by just rolling down boulders? I saw the cliff face, which was so sharp that we were barred from going near it. This was the cliff upon which Pakistani soldiers had fixed ropes and retreated when they came under the assault of our Infantry and Artillery barrage that night. I reckon that our soldiers did not realise how daunting the terrain was because they climbed when the hour was the darkest, and only realised how precipitous their foothold was when dawn broke," Adhau told the TOI from Pune, after his extensive tour of the Drass and Batalik war sectors.
The hardy doctor's annual pilgrimages to the wounded sites of the Kargil War never fails to trigger an outpouring of emotions and tears. "I feel that time has stood still over these 26 years and that I have no memories but I am re-living those moments again. I cannot control my tears, try as I might. I realise that the day my tears stop, I will be dead as a human being," added Adhau.
Adhau's proximity to the fighting jawans along with his trusted nursing assistant, Sub. Shiv Raj Chouhan, during the war had ensured that he was five minutes away from a wounded soldier. Adhau would administer the vital first aid, stabilise the patient and administer morale-boosting pep talk so that the casualty would survive the arduous evacuation downhill by stretcher parties to an advanced medical facility.
As many as 97 wounded officers and soldiers benefitted from Adhau and Chauhan's vigil over the proverbial "golden hour" of traumatic medical emergencies.
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