{"id":5107,"date":"2016-07-27T19:06:56","date_gmt":"2016-07-27T13:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=5107"},"modified":"2026-07-17T21:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T15:58:18","slug":"kargil-war-vijay-diwas-saurabh-kalia-the-22-year-old-soldier-who-never-returned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/?p=5107","title":{"rendered":"Kargil Vijay Diwas: Saurabh Kalia, the 22-Year-Old Soldier Who Never Returned"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><span class=\"dropcap\">O<\/span>n February 27, Indian Air Force Wing Commander <\/p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/social-commentary\/abhinandan-varthaman-k-nachiketa-iaf-kargil-balakot-india-pakistan\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abhinandan Varthaman<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was on a mission: To intercept Pakistani aircraft flying over Jammu and Kashmir. Two weeks after the suicide bombing that saw 40 Indian security personnel martyred in <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/pulwama-attack-anger-is-justified-but-not-our-hatred\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pulwama<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, tensions between India and Pakistan had escalated into a series of cross-border skirmishes and air raids. Abhinandan\u2019s plane, having crossed into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, was hit by a surface-to-surface missile. Pilot and plane went down, and were captured by Pakistani forces.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s been 20 years since the Kargil War was officially declared over. But the time elapsed didn\u2019t stop the nation from remembering another hero who had, back then, been taken as a Prisoner of War: Capt Saurabh Kalia of the Indian Army. On May 15, 1999, Kalia and five other<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/grub\/bsf-jawan-indian-army-navy-india-food-ration\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> soldiers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 sepoys from the 4 Jat Regiment who accompanied him on his reconnaissance patrol through the peaks of Ladakh \u2014 were not expecting to find enemies in the cold, inhospitable conditions. Unbeknownst to them, Pakistan had set up hundreds of guerilla soldiers in the rugged mountains, their infiltration efforts falling well inside the Indian Line of Control.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When Kalia and five other soldiers \u2013 Sepoys Arjun Ram, Bhanwar Lal Bagaria, Bhika Ram, Moola Ram, and Naresh Singh \u2013 went to patrol the Bajrang Area post in Kargil district, they found themselves in a crossfire with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/pulwama-pakistan-uri-india-narendra-modi-crpf\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pakistani forces<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The Indian army men ran out of ammunition, were soon captured by rangers, and held captive by the Pakistani Army for 22 brutal days. Unlike when Abhinandan\u2019s plane went down, there were no blow-by-blow updates on the news or uproar on social media. The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ndtv.com\/india-news\/he-signed-his-epitaph-kargil-war-hero-saurabh-kalias-parents-remember-their-son-2072911\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">announcement<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> came from PoK\u2019s Radio Askardu, saying that the Indian soldiers had been captured.<\/span>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-52719\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1564128581.jpg\" alt=\"kargil_war\" width=\"558\" height=\"407\" \/>\n\nThe announcement came from PoK\u2019s Radio Askardu, saying that the Indian soldiers had been captured.\n\nVijay Gupta\/Getty Images\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nor did Kalia return home safe like Abhinandan did. For weeks, he and his team were subjected to graphic torture, enduring broken bones, pulled fingernails, gouged eyes, and pierced eardrums. They were burned with cigarettes and had their body parts chopped off, before finally being shot dead. On June 9, Kalia\u2019s mutilated body was returned to his <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/liberal-indians-non-woke-parents\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">parents<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and a post-mortem report confirmed his torture. He was not 23 yet.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Pakistani government continued to deny these claims, chalking the signs of damage up to \u201cextreme weather\u201d. Kalia\u2019s father is still waiting for official action to be taken over his son\u2019s killing. As the rest of the country gears up to commemorate our victory in Kargil, NK Kalia remembers his own grief and the injustice that has followed. In an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/blogs\/contentions\/this-case-is-not-only-about-captain-saurabh-kalia-but-the-honour-and-dignity-of-our-soldiers-pak-must-apologise\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">interview<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with The Times of India, he spoke with immense pride of his son\u2019s ultimate sacrifice, pointing out that his regiment was the first to discover that Pakistan had infiltrated the Line of Control. But his quest to pressure the Pakistani government for an official apology and a punishment for Kalia\u2019s torturers, has been an exercise in futility.<\/span>\n<blockquote class=\"quote--center\">The cost of war is incalculable and is always paid by martyrs and their families.<\/blockquote>\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to NK Kalia, then-Prime Minister <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/atal-bihar-vajpayee-bjp-death\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Atal Bihari Vajpayee<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and other ministers had promised to raise the issue of Pakistan\u2019s war crimes with the international community, but never pursued it seriously. NK Kalia <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/blogs\/contentions\/this-case-is-not-only-about-captain-saurabh-kalia-but-the-honour-and-dignity-of-our-soldiers-pak-must-apologise\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tells<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> ToI, \u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sadly, for our netas security personnel are only numbers, of which they can have inexhaustible supply.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Undeterred, he continues to hold out hope that Capt Kalia\u2019s suffering will one day be acknowledged. Besides being posthumously promoted to the rank of Captain, NK Kalia believes that government officials care little for what happened to his son. He <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/blogs\/contentions\/this-case-is-not-only-about-captain-saurabh-kalia-but-the-honour-and-dignity-of-our-soldiers-pak-must-apologise\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reached<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> out to former External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to no avail, and has tried to get an audience with ex-PM of Pakistan, Parvez Musharaff. Although he\u2019s thus far been rebuffed at every turn, NK Kalia believes that heinous crimes against soldiers will no longer go unpunished.<\/span>\n\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-52720\" src=\"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1564128581-1.jpg\" alt=\"kargil_war\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" \/>\n\nThe tragic loss of Capt Kalia and his men is, after all, a casualty of war, where the most inhumane acts are justified under the guise of winning.\n\nNurPhoto\/NurPhoto via Getty Images\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A large part of his faith comes from the Modi administration\u2019s response after Wing Commander Abhinandan was captured. While they have refused to press charges for Kalia\u2019s death in the International Court of Justice, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news18.com\/news\/india\/pakistani-army-punctured-eyes-cut-off-genital-and-limbs-of-captain-saurabh-kalia-and-his-soldiers-after-capturing-them-999802.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">citing<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the action as \u201cnot practical\u201d, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/indian-government-constitution-bjp-ministers\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">government<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has done a better job with Abhinandan, taking a firm stance against Pakistan. Abhinandan was safely returned across the border after 60 hours, unharmed by his time in captivity.\u00a0<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As for why this NDA government has been more proactive than the previous one when it comes to cross-border relations? Maybe they are determined not to repeat the mistakes of their predecessors, whom NK Kalia has called \u201cspineless\u201d. Or maybe the memories of Indo-Pak clashes have grown fainter, as they have for all of us after a long stretch of relative <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/pov\/pulwama-attack-peace-dirty-word\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">peace<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span>\n\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Kargil Vijay Diwas, the nation celebrates a hard-won victory \u2014 and hopefully, spares a few moments to honour those who made it possible. The tragic loss of Capt Kalia and his men is, after all, a casualty of war, where the most inhumane acts are justified under the guise of winning. Twenty years on, NK Kalia still tells us a cautionary tale: The cost of war is incalculable and is always paid by <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arre.co.in\/politics\/nathuram-godse-martyrs-day-mahatma-gandhi\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">martyrs<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and their families.<\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Kargil Vijay Diwas, the nation celebrates a hard-won victory \u2014 and spares a few moments to honour those who made it possible. But two decades after the conflict ended, martyrs like Captain Saurabh Kalia deserve more than just our tribute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":5111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[7714,8705,769,8706,8097,8707,262,7595],"class_list":["post-5107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-abhinandan-varthaman","tag-capt-saurabh-kalia","tag-indian-army","tag-kargil-vijay-diwas","tag-kargil-war","tag-loc","tag-pakistan","tag-pulwama"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Kargil Vijay Diwas: Saurabh Kalia, the 22-Year-Old Soldier Who Never Returned<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Kargil Vijay Diwas, the nation celebrates a hard-won victory \u2014 and spares a few moments to honour those who made it possible. 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