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At the Line of Control, young Indian soldiers -- in their 20s and 30s -- defend one of the world's most volatile borders.
Battling harsh weather, tough terrain and a hostile enemy -- as old as the Indian nation itself -- these soldiers face a war every day to hold the peace.
Rediff.com's Archana L Masih reports from Indian Army posts along the Line of Control.
Photographs: Rajesh Karkera/Rediff.com
"Line of Control -- what comes to your mind when you think about it?" asks Major Anurag Chaturvedi, sitting in the front seat of the Maruti Gypsy as we drive towards a forward post guarding the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.
The officer, a native of Rajasthan, is stationed at a place which does not have a name; only a number -- indicating its location from sea level.
This morning he has left at 4.30 am to pick us up -- soldiers at the LoC say their day begins at night when infiltrators often use the shroud of darkness to cross into Indian territory.
But that hardly means that the day is any better and to prove this the commanding officer of one of the battalions guarding the LoC stops the car en route and asked, "Can you see anything beyond the periphery of this forest?"
You can't.
It is early afternoon and it is calm. There is a stillness in the wooded landscape flecked with hills, the last village is left 15 kilometres behind, ahead lies the India-Pakistan Ceasefire Line, famously known as the LoC, defended by the Indian Army -- where at one point in this area the enemy post lies just 70 metres away.
Here 'Eyeball to Eyeball' is not just a figure of speech; it means that and only that.
From these border posts, soldiers keep a strict watch -- 24x7x365 -- defending the Line of Control. Keeping a day and night vigil to prevent Pakistani infiltrators from crossing into India.
You have to know the LoC with your eyes closed'
In the distance, across the landscape scattered with mine fields, one can see the Pakistani posts -- on a hill, or another on a pointed tip, among a grove of trees under a star and crescent flag.
"He is watching us. As we are moving, he is observing us at places. He must know we have visitors," says an officer whose unit is in-charge of manning a chunk of the ridge along the LoC and the electric fencing that lies behind the LoC on the Indian side, constructed in 2004.
Officers here often refer to the enemy as 'he' and the Line of Control as 'LC.' They say they have to know the location of the Line of Control like the back of their hand.
On the map it is another thing but on the ground, this is no physical boundary drawn by a painted line -- in this famously treacherous terrain the LoC is identified by physical features -- "that tree, that hill, that rock, it runs between those hills with tall trees, through that river..."
"If you are posted here you have to know the LoC with your eyes closed -- even if you are blind," says Colonel Rakesh Nair, a proud second generation soldier from the Gorkha Rifles, who has served with the Rashtriya Rifles fighting insurgency in the Kashmir valley -- also in the Siachen Glacier and in Lebanon on a United Nations Peacekeeping Mission.
"When the winter fog comes in, you won't be able to make out whether you are seeing a rock or a man if it is stationery -- and still this area is better. It keeps getting worse if you go higher in the Kashmir valley," says another officer, who has been stationed in the area since last year, someone who prefers these field postings to peace stations.
"People ask you guys are there at the border and still infiltration is taking place?" adds an officer, "This is a physically manned border, and you can't have a man on every inch of land. You will be at tactically important places, but that does not guarantee he'll come to those places, he'll come to any place."
Last year, 15 Indian soldiers lost their lives in counter infiltration/counter-terrorism operations; 45 others were seriously injured defending the border in Jammu and Kashmir.
One of them, Lieutenant Navdeep Singh -- who was awarded the Ashok Chakra, the highest gallantry award in peacetime this Republic Day -- was just 25 years old.
'If this post goes, the battleground is lost'
The posts are small -- almost makeshift structures -- but are formidable and crucial to India's defences.
Some have seen bloody action in every war with Pakistan, where men have had to fight to the last man and the last bullet in the face of enemy attack.
"The post was attacked by Pakistan several times -- again and again -- over three days during the 1971 war, but it did not fall," a young officer entrusted with defending that post explains. "If this post goes, the battleground is lost. It will be very difficult to recapture it."
A different infantry battalion now mans this post. Most of its soldiers were not even born in 1971, but speak with great admiration of the soldiers who held on to this post unrelentingly 40 years ago. A small memorial salutes the men who died fighting here.
Up ahead, in the precincts of another post that gives us a bird's eye view of the LoC and Pakistan, is another memorial to those who died defending this front.
Apart from saluting our martyrs, it also extends solemn tribute to the fallen Pakistani soldiers -- 'Homage also to enemy soldiers killed' reads the last line of the plain marble plaque.
'We are Indian soldiers, we maintain decency even in war,' Amitabh Bachchan, playing Colonel Damle in the film Lakshyaset during the Kargil war, had said -- but here a few hundred metres from a border that has seen many young men sacrifice their lives every year, everything is for real.
Here, even simple things like taking photographs of the landscape ahead can pose serious security threats. You may wonder how anyone can make out anything from a thicket of trees or a hill which could be located anywhere, but when across sits a hostile neighbour and guarding the border is a matter of life and death, these young men can never let their guard down.
"I will have to delete the pictures you have taken of the enemy post," a company commander tells my colleague Rajesh. "If it starts floating on the Net, a person who has served in that area on the other side will know the position from which this picture is taken."
The men here guard their territory zealously. Away from family, human habitation, cell phone communication, theirs is a 24x7x365 job which comes with no weekend or festival breaks.
Their post is their home.
"You could take a picture of my post from anywhere -- aerial view, bottom view, side view, sky view -- any which view and I will be able to tell you the line of sight from where you've taken it," says Major Anurag Chaturvedi, a tough officer who has served on the China border and was on the search team looking for the late Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy's helicopter in the Nalamalla jungles in September 2009.
To the lay-eye all posts may look almost alike. Some on towers, some in bunkers, with sandbags and narrow windows armed with sophisticated rifles aimed in readiness. Men in bullet-proof jackets and helmets, carrying guns as easily as we carry shoulder bags.
Raising a curtain made of bamboo logs stringed together, Major Neeraj Sundaram -- a second generation soldier also from the Gorkha Rifles -- points to the enemy posts across and in the direction from where Pakistani attacks have come in the past.
"That river that you see, we have to keep a watch on it because it has been used by infiltrators in the past," he says. "The difference between them and us is that they have villages upfront. They bring their cattle to the forward slopes to graze and these guys come along with them, have a look and go back. If five guys come, four may go back and one may stay back, so we have to keep a constant watch."
At the LoC men begin to trust their ears more than their eyes
The terrain is difficult, the jungle is thick; in the night it is often difficult to know whether the moving figure is an animal or a man. But these pale out when confronted with what lies on the other side of the LoC.
"Can you trust the person across? Never! Since '48 we have not been able to trust him. There is a ceasefire on, but despite that you don't know what he will do next," says an officer who has seen a friend die in front of him fighting terrorists in Srinagar.
In the face of harsh weather, tough terrain and a hostile enemy, these soldiers hold the peace against tremendous odds.
Young men -- in their 20s and 30s -- who 'stand on the wall', keeping the watch as they defend one of the world's most volatile borders.
"You can call us the CEOs of 800 men," says Colonel Nair, slapping the back of a jawan, "but the difference is that I will give my life for him and I know he will do the same for me -- 200 per cent and without a doubt."
"When the fire comes, I will stand in front of him and he will stand in front of me. That is the kind of faith we have."
this taken from reddif news
author:Archana Masih
WORLD DEFENSE REVIEW: saluting soldiers at LoC -INDIAN ARMY
