Injured soldiers eager to go back and fight

NEW DELHI, JUNE 3: "They are all over the place. There have been times when they were just a few hundred yards away from our pickets...

NEW DELHI, JUNE 3: "They are all over the place. There have been times when they were just a few hundred yards away from our pickets. We have them surrounded but when they open fire it becomes difficult to identify where it is coming from. We hit back, firing blindly at times but eventually getting our targets. They will never go back alive. We are there to win this war, for all of us."

They all say the same thing. Each of the 20-odd wounded soldiers recuperating at the Army Base Hospital here has a similar story to tell – a story about what life at the Kargil-Drass LoC area has been like for the last one month. And they tell these stories with pride.

"I am a fauji and we are fighting a war," says Havaldar Salim Mohammad. "It is simple. The intruders will not go back, we’ll get them first. Once the bandages are off, I hope I get a chance to go back and finish an unfinished job," he adds.

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A week back, Havaldar Mohammad was manning a post in the Drass region. Against all odds, he and his fellow soldiers of the 16 Grenadiers were defending their post when a shell landed right next to them.

"The shell landed very close to us," Mohammad says matter-of-factly, adding, "the shrapnel hit me. But I am not very badly hurt." His arm in a sling, Mohammed recalls the day the wounded were taken to Delhi. "All of us who were wounded were brought down to Srinagar. After initial treatment, we were air-lifted to Delhi. I’ll be fine but there are others in the hospital at Srinagar who are not doing well," the Halvadar says.

According to the soldiers at the hospital, life along the LoC is "tough". Lance Naik Samarjeet of Eight Sikh Light Infantry was part of a search-and-cordon operation when he got shot in the foot. "It was a very cold day and the snow had been falling periodically," says Samarjeet. "We were out on a mission when the bullets started flying thick and fast. We fired back, killing some, injuring others."

It has just been two years since radio operator Vipin Kumar of the 197 Field Regiment joined the forces and was deployed around 10 km from Drass. He was on his way there when the shells fell near the vehicle. "Everything just flew at us and shrapnel pierced my neck," he recalls.

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Kumar has not yet told his family, who live in Meerut, about the incident. "They will get upset. Once I am better and things go back to normal I’ll tell them all about life in Drass," he says, than adds, "Maybe not everything."

There is a certain urgency in his voice as he says: "The hospital at Srinagar is packed. I have splinter wounds in my neck but the really wounded people are still up there. Soldiers have lost their limbs, there are those who cannot move. People are dying there. Nothing I say will convey the real ground situation along the LoC."