Story of 29th June 1999

It was around 2am at night, when three troops of Indian soldiers were marching towards the peak of “Black Rock” in Kargil War. It was extreme hostile conditions of minus 28 degree and enemy bullets all around. My husband Captain Akhilesh Saxena was leading one of the troop (This was his third attack on enemy peak after “Tololing” and “Hump”). They marched and fought for around 8 hours to reach the peak and now it was just one more hour to capture this post. Pakistani soldiers were continuously bomb shelling and shooting from the peak. We lost many of our soldiers and two young officers – Vijayant Thaper and Maj Acharaya, who were leading other troops from different directions. My husband was left alone to give direction and motivation to our soldiers.

The conditions was very deadly, anytime any bullet can hit him and the whole action plan could have been spoiled. If there is no officer with a troop, jawans would have lost their confidence and no one could have return from this attack, alive. And the worst happened, my husband was hit by bullets and splinters and got severely injured. He kept quiet and hidden his injuries from his troop because he didn’t want his troop to loose confident as they were about to capture the peak.

At last they were able to capture the peak and then troops realised that their officer who led them is injured and bleeding badly. He was bleeding badly so just to control the flow of blood he tied his hand on this head. This brave solider walked down with severe bullet injuries, for nine hours to get the first medical aid. During the journey he became unconscious three times due to loss of blood but didn’t stop. Finally he reached base camp and became totally unconscious. He was able to reach back and was alive just because of his sheer will power and passion for the country.

I am proud of my husband that he led his troops in such a difficult conditions during the Kargil war and brave enough to kept himself alive for another mission……..