Indian Army officers explain challenges that 1 Naga Regiment faced In Kargil War

Two Officers Take You Through The Stiff Challenges That 1 Naga Regiment Faced In Kargil War
During the initial stages of the Kargil War, a medium machine gun post manned by four Pakistani infiltrators was wreaking havoc near point 5140, the highest point on the Tololing ridgeline in Kargil at 17,000 feet. The Indian army units were pinned down until 26-year-old captain Ashok Subramaniam and 20 men from 1 Naga climbed up the treacherous snow-covered mountain and destroyed the post on May 24.

1 Naga, one of the first units to take on the enemy, captured different areas near Point 5140, including Black Rock, Thums Up, Pyramid, Pimple Hill (later renamed Naga Hill), and Point 5060. The Nagas suffered 10 casualties and 52 were critically injured. Captain Ashok was ‘mentioned in dispatches’ and 1 Naga was awarded Battle Honour- Dras and Theatre Honour-Kargil.

On the 25th anniversary of Kargil War, Ashok Subramaniam, who retired as colonel and now works for an IT major in Chennai, and Brigadier Arul Dennis, who also retired from 1 Naga, recalled the initial days. “I am from the 1995 batch of IMA. In May 1999, I was involved in a counter-insurgency operation in Srinagar. We got one day’s notice to move to Dras, which we reached on May 11. Our target was to capture point 5140,” said Ashok.

The first few days were about containing the situation. “On May 24, we had to destroy an MMG at 15,000 feet. This was a major hindrance to the movement of troops. At night, in thick snow and poor visibility, we managed to reach the point through the rear side and destroy it.

Four infiltrators were killed,” Ashok said. The action hot ted up after that. “We were on a convex slope 150 metres beneath the summit, and we could hear the infiltrators. We exchanged fire for two days. On the second evening, they fired an artillery shell that landed near us. Of the 20 people in my company, 10 were injured. Sepoy Bharat Singh from Uttarakhand died in my arms,” he said. Ashok was severely injured in the abdomen.

The unit, wounded included, descended thousands of feet using the bare minimum of equipment and dodging enemy fire. “The Pakistanis were firing shells at the helipad, and the chopper could not land properly. After getting some first aid, somehow, we were evacuated, and I underwent surgery a day later,” he said.

Brigadier Arul Dennis, a 1980 batch OTA officer who was the second in command of the 1 Naga, was in Delhi when the war started. “I joined the action mid-May. My boys, who were already in the thick of it, pointed at Black Rock Point and told me that the Pakistanis sitting on top would try to shell us.

I heard a whirring sound but did not realise it was a shell. My boys shouted ‘dive’, but before I could react it fell… 40 feet away from me. My boys pulled me away, and we took shelter.

In seconds, another shell fell where we had stood,” he said. Snipers took shots at him and his men when they were inspecting the sangars evacuated by the infiltrators.

“When we captured Black Rock, we found booby traps. But my Naga boys smelled trouble, and deactivated the bombs,” Arul Dennis said. Both officers are now retired.
“But Kargil still feels like yesterday,” said Ashok.
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