LUCKNOW, JULY 8: Our task is difficult as intruders have occupied prime positions. But with your blessings and faith in God, we are sure that victory will be ours. Sitting at 18,000 ft, waiting to go into the battle for Tiger Hill, these were the last words of Captain Manoj Pandey to his parents.Now after sacrificing his life for the country, the road leading to his house has got a new name - ``Martyr's Path''. The Lucknow Nagar Nigam has announced that a statue of the soldier will be put up near his residence as a mark of respect to his bravery.The coffin containing Pandey's body arrived on Wednesday by plane from New Delhi. From the airport, it was taken to the Army headquarters in Lucknow where it was kept overnight.Among the nearly 75 Armymen from Uttar Pradesh fighting in Kargil, Pandey, his friends recall, was a born fighter. ``He fought first against the penury of his family,'' says a close friend of Manoj since childhood, Mukesh Khare. ``He used to sit in the paan shop of his father. Unlikea number of other Armymen, there was none in his family who had even distant links with the defence forces. But he vowed to serve the motherland, which was more important to him than his mother''.JAMMU: The mortal remains of seven martyrs of 12 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JKLI), who laid down their lives fighting intruders in the Batalik sub-sector in Kargil, were cremated and buried at their native places today.The bodies was received by Minister for Industries and Commerce Bodh Raj Bali, Minister Sheep Husbandry S S Slathia, Army Station Commander Brigadier I P Singh and Air Force Commander Captain S K Sharma at Jammu yesterday.
