Lt Saurabh Kalia: The story behind his heroic death

''When you go home, tell them of us and say, for your tomorrow, we gave our today"

All of sudden, in this materialistic world, I forgot a part of my life. Let me take out a leaf out of history and pay tribute to Lt Saurabh Kalia (made Captain posthumously). It was a Wednesday and I was busy making last minute arrangements at my Srinagar office to return to Kargil on the next day (June 10, 1999). Suddenly my office phone rang and it was one of my darling friends from Army calling. His voice was not the same and still reverberates in my ears. A usually smart officer is asking me to call him from some PCO and refused to answer any of my inquisitive journalistic questions.

Little did I know that, I was writing a portion of history of the infamous Kargil war while I left in a hush manner from the office along with one of my senior colleague. Half-a-kilometre away, we managed to find a PCO from where I attempted to call my Army friend. And guess what, the phone was engaged thus not only increasing my blood pressure but also heart beat. Tring tring….the phone is ringing and I just held the hand of my senior colleague as he was making all signals to calm me down.

“Write fast. Lt Kalia’s body handed over in Kaksar sub-sector along with five soldiers of 4-Jat. Mutilated severely. Their eyeballs have been gouged out and noses, genitals chopped off. Cigarette marks on their bodies. Tempers are high…” and he hung up. Tried calling him up again but he did not pick up this time.

What happened…? Was the question from my colleague. Though he was questioning me about the news but I guess he was waking me from a shock I had received after hearing the caller on other side.

After recovering from the shock, I felt so sad about being a journalist. “What are we? Someone has died because of a merciless torture by Pakistani Army and now we are supposed to write a story? What will happen to his family? What if he was just married?”

The dilemma of a journalist and a common man was topping the agenda of my brain for sometime till the senior colleague of mine gave me a “Gita updesh” and asked me to do my “karma”. And no sooner, I was at the telex machine broadcasting the news to the nation and possibly to the world about the supreme sacrifice made by Lt Kalia and his team. Camouflaging the dateline with that of Kargil, I made an attempt to save my source in the Army.

The News was there everywhere. Few Television channels and all international wire agencies were broadcasting and typing in the news. Some of my seniors were calling from Delhi complimenting me for breaking the news and I was wondering whether I should be happy or sad. What are you journalists made of? And suddenly there was a fight between me and my conscience. Though the battle still continues within me but on that day, I was left flabbergasted over the attitude of Army officials sitting in the Directorate of Military Intelligence which send its Brigadier to one of my seniors denying the news. However, he was reluctant to give the same in writing. Here I should thank my boss, who stood by me and showed the door to the Brigadier. And by evening, those denying ended up with an egg on their faces when International Committee of Red Cross and Indian Red Cross confirmed my story.

A contended journalist in me had a smile but a human being in me was still crying for the loss of a young life. That was the restless night for me as I was trying to imagine what could have been going in the mind of Kalia. Was 22 an age for him to die in such a gruesome manner? What would be going on his family? What would have happened to his family members. After talking to martyr Kalia’s father, I bowed by head in respect towards the entire family but what bothers me still is that why did Army attempted to deny the story at the first instance? And why did the Army authorities and those in the Government find it fit to decorate Lt Kalia and his men who woke up a sleepy nation and a sleeping Army.