INDIAN WAR HEROES

This is about Major Somnath Sharma who on November 3, 1947 saved Srinagar airport (and Kashmir) at the supreme cost of his life. Had he not sacrificed his life, Afzal's defenders would not today make front page news in the Indian press, for the simple reason that they would be Pakistani citizens living under a military dictatorship. Our story starts during in the early days of October 1947 when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru received a message from a former deputy commissioner of Dera Ismail Khan [one of the province's main districts] in the North West Frontier Province.

A valiant junior commissioned officer and a hero of the Siachen conflict, Naib Subedar Chunni Lal, was killed on Sunday even as he shot down five intruding terrorists near the Line of Control in North Kashmir. Lal, belonging to the Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, displayed exemplary courage and leadership when he charged at a group of heavily-armed terrorists who had sneaked across the LoC on Sunday night.

Lieutenant Vikram Batra had to complete his mission successfully. Pakistani invaders had taken positions in bunkers at a height of 17,000 feet on Peak 5140 in Jammu and Kashmir. Lieutenant Batra and Captain Sanjeev Jamwal -- both from the Kangra valley in Himachal Pradesh -- were ordered to recapture the peak on the night of June 19, 1999, about five weeks after the Kargil war began. The operation was much too dangerous to be carried out during the day.

Someone flicked the television on for the 2 pm news and in spite of her medicine-induced haze Vijay Kalia heard the report correctly from her bedside. Her son's body had been recovered. He was just 22 and had joined the Indian Army only four months ago. She had heard the news in the morning and suffered a mild heart attack. The remedial injection had left her in a stupor. But now reality stared her in the face. Two days before New Year 1999 the family was at Amritsar station seeing him off as he boarded the train to join the 4 Jat regiment as a lieutenant.

1988 - After serving with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka for a couple of years, Lieutenant Colonel A Mariappan was finally returning home. But he could not make it to his family. En route, he died in a road accident in Bangalore. His oldest son, Sarvanan, was only 14.