Kargil martyrs.

TWENTY-ONE years have passed since Capt Karnal Sher Khan laid down his life in the service of his country. On July 7, army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa paid tribute to Capt Karnal and another martyr of the Kargil conflict, Havaldar Lalak Jan, saying in a message that the 'nation is proud of its gallant sons for valour and unwavering allegiance to defend the country, regardless of the cost'. Indeed, there can be no greater sacrifice, and there are hundreds of such soldiers, mainly from the Northern Light Infantry, who embraced martyrdom on those icy, inhospitable peaks in India-held Kashmir.

And yet, there is still much we do not know about the individual stories of courage, the desperate fight to the death in the face of dwindling supplies of food and ammunition, with artillery fire from the other side raining down on them. The government and the army have remained tight-lipped about the conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours that set the world on edge, and precipitated the downfall of Pakistan's civilian government a few months later, and yet another military takeover. Most of what we now know about that seminal event is courtesy journalist Nasim Zehra's magnum opus From Kargil to Coup. The bare facts are thus: a coterie of four top generals, including then army chief Pervez Musharraf, orchestrated a secret operation that would, they believed, bring India to its knees and compel it to negotiate on the Kashmir issue. It was later criticised as non-inclusive strategising, for it not only bypassed the rest of...