Untold Story of Kargil Martyr Ishtiaq Khan: Entered Pakistan's border and killed enemies,
Subedar Mohammad Bakhtawar Hussain, a village friend of Kargil martyr Ishtiaq Khan and who was with a unit during the war, spoke to Bhaskar. During that time the entire story related to the Kargil war was told. Let's hear the whole story one by one in the words of Subedar Bakhtawar Hussain…
In the morning we left for Kargil. The train reached Jammu station on 1 June. Civil trucks were already waiting there. We reached RR Ground in Srinagar in the night itself. Next day on 2nd June at 4 am we marched for Kargil and reached Kargil by evening. There we had to take charge from the 10th Battalion of Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry, but after reaching there, everyone was asked to reach Burj Kharbu.
Burj Kharbu is a Village in Dras Tehsil of Kargil District. It is 26 km away from Kargil. There is a way to go from Kargil to Kharbu with the help of a drain.
From June 6, we started preparing. We had to capture Jewar Hill in Batalik Sector, it was a very steep hill. To reach there, we had to do rope climbing, that is, climb with the help of rope. During the Kargil war, a special unit was deployed for this purpose. So that the rope way can be made for the soldiers to climb.
The date of 30 June was fixed for the attack on the Pakistani army. The order was to end the attack before 4 a.m. on 1 July. We attacked ahead of time. By 4 o'clock the Pakistani soldiers were driven out and everything was cleared. The attack was successful, till that time there was no loss to us.
However, after a while heavy artillery fire started there. Cannon balls were raining as if it was raining stones. We held our positions for 2 full days. On July 3, i.e. 2 days later, at 9:35 pm, the 10 Punjab Regiment of the Pakistani Army made a counter attack. There were a total of 40 soldiers in our platoon and 80 soldiers of Ladakh Scouts were about to come for assistance.
After tracking the talk of the Indian Army on the radio set, the Pakistani army prepared a plan. He will go in the guise of Ladakh Scouts of the Indian Army. They knew that our reinforcement was coming. The Pakistani army came in the guise of Ladakh Scouts. After coming, he said to our Subedar Saheb that "You guys surrender."
Company Quartermaster Kamaruddin was immediately suspicious when asked to surrender. He softly told fellow Tufail that he is a Pakistani. His point was heard by the commanding officer of the Pakistani army. As soon as they came to know that we got suspicious, they started firing immediately.
We did not even get a chance to recover for 2 minutes in the deceitful attack. They were firing bursts from all sides. We took cover and started retaliatory firing. Bullets were raining from both sides. In the face-to-face fight that lasted for 10 minutes, shots were fired from both sides. After this, when they felt that they would be defeated, they ran towards the border.
In this attack, 10 of our 40 soldiers were martyred. 17 jawans were injured and 13 jawans were safe. More than 30 soldiers of the Pakistani army were killed and more than 25 were seriously injured.
Ishtiaq fought till his last breath, entered the house and killed Pakistani soldiers
In a one-on-one fight, Ishtiaq was shot in the thigh and groin. Despite this, he pursued the enemies for 1 kilometer in the lower part of the hill. While chasing, they entered the enemy's territory. We kept looking for them for 2 days but could not find them.
After capturing the entire peak on 7th July, the process of locating all the missing jawans started in the evening. When we reached 1 kilometer down the hill looking for the dead body of our soldiers, Ishtiaq's body was found there.
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