Kargil Vijay Diwas is a special occasion for the people of Ladakh. During the war, people of Ladakh didn’t think twice before helping the Indian Army in the war-torn areas.

The Kargil Vijay Diwas is dedicated to hundreds of volunteers who assisted the armed forces fearlessly. Let’s hear from three volunteers about their ordeal during the war.

On a pitch dark night, in the month of June 1999, when the nation was fighting its biggest battles of the 20th century, Tsering

Dorjai, resident of village Tia in Ladakh was busy taking care of his ill mother at his house. When he got a call from his village nambardar seeking volunteers for assistance of Indian Army in Kargil, Tsering Dorjai without thinking twice, volunteered to proceed towards the war zone. “I was moved to Biamah bridge alongwith twenty other volunteers from where rations, ammunition and various other war like stores were being moved forward to the fighting troops. I lifted more than 25 kgs of ration and ammunition on my shoulders till Ganasok. All this was happening in the thick of battle, under heavy shelling from the enemy side. I walked along with other volunteers for more than twelve hours, uphill on a steep nala track, and successfully delivered the stores. In addition to delivering the stores at Ganasok we also assisted in evacuation of war casualties back to the base.”

The brave duo Stanzin Nangil and Phunchok Angdu were the first ones from their village to board an army vehicle and move towards the battlefield of Kargil. “We started at around 4 am without any breakfast under heavy shelling from the enemy side. After around 14 hours of climb, we were not able to reach the forward post, possibly losing way somewhere in between. The entire group of volunteers did not eat anything as the ration which we were carrying was for the fighting soldiers and must not be consumed by us. We both decided to stay in a small broken hut and asked all others to come back again next morning. At around 6:30 am, we saw a flag being waved from the forward post guiding us in the right direction. The feeling of providing supplies to the brave soldiers of the Indian Army gave us immense pride and satisfaction, which filled us with more courage to do the same in days to come. We returned back to the base in Darsik sector at around 9 pm where we had our first meal in 40 hours.”