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Hearts of Steel: Brothers in Arms
From our collection of stories that paint a vivid picture of bravery, sacrifice, and the profound impact of war on the human spirit
Maha Vir Chakra awardee Captain Neikezhakuo Kengurüse, aka ‘Nimbu Saab’ played a crucial role in defending Point 4590 in Kargil war. Here, his brother Neingutoulie describes Neibu’s life in the army before embarking on the operation in which he lost his life leading his men into combat.
Several days after the conflict, acclaimed journalists made their way into the tents of the soldiers who had just returned from the Tololing battlefront. This was the war that gave birth to real-time reporting in India as journalists took to keeping the nation informed about the ongoings at our borders.
I would not have been able to believe then if someone told me that Neibu was witnessing his soldier-brothers breathing their last, crying for their families as they lay there in pain. When you’re at war, there’s no time to mourn; there’s only little time to get your men together, more united than ever before, pick up martyred bodies, collect your enemy’s weapons and ammunition, clear out the scattered bodies after a victory, and most importantly, gather courage and resilience for the next attack.
The Indian Army soldiers would often find letters of Pakistani Army soldiers while clearing out the points captured, and with every letter, more secrets about the planning of this disruptive war would be revealed. At the same time, they would empathize with the soldiers writing letters to their loved ones, as they themselves had done the same during troubling times, desperate as they often were to make their families feel at ease, since the news of the war had spread like wildfire by then and it told a different story than what most soldiers were reporting to their families in their initial days. However, as the attacks got intense, soldiers started speaking the truth, as did Neibu, since there was no guarantee that they would live to tell these tales to their loved ones.
After Tololing, Neibu also called home and spoke to Apuo honestly. He said, ‘We have won the battle and snatched many arms and ammunition of the enemy, but many of my loved ones have fallen in front of my eyes and I am not feeling good about it.’ Despite the grim news, our ever-optimistic Apuo assumed that this meant that after the impossible Tololing win, they would now be given some relief and someone else would take charge in future attacks. Nobody in my family knew then that the infantry and artillery worked hand in hand during this war, and many regiments were acting together to change the course of the future in favour of the Indian Army—which seemed like a distant dream on day one, owing to the unfair advantage that the Pakistani Army had. Therefore, our father felt a little relaxed instead of worried after the call, completely unaware as he was of the gruelling challenges and relentless battles that lay ahead for Neibu and his comrades. He really had no clue that his son, as the second-in-command after Maj. Mohit Saxena, was now gearing up for the next attack.
The battalion received fresh orders within two weeks of the first attack, on 24 June. 2 Raj Rif was to attack the Three Pimples, Knoll and Lone Hill areas—all prized possessions for Pakistan and India. Without the collaborative strategy of the sub-units and units within a battalion, and a carefully designed dance between artillery firing and the infantry’s on-foot soldiers, any attack during Operation Vijay was incomplete and impracticable. Therefore, strategically, the tasks were divided between Companies. D Coy, with Maj. Mohit Saxena in command and Neibu as the second-in-command, was given the responsibility of capturing Lone Hill, and A Coy, led by Acharya and Thapar (as the second-in-command), was given the responsibility of Knoll.
On the night of 27 June, the batallion started their climb and reached the fire base by 6 the following morning. Just then, heavy enemy shelling killed one of their men, Satpal. The firing continued sporadically and so did the briefing on how to mindfully proceed with the attack going on.
Amidst the chaos, Maj. Saxena, Acharya, Thapar and Neibu shared a light moment and had a conversation about home and family. The officers sat down at the firm base known as Kajal, and my brother told his crew about the large family he had waiting for him at home. I learnt about all of this much later, of course, through Saxena. Some of the officers were hearing about Neibu’s large family back home for the first time and felt a surge of compassion and pride in him for his sense of duty towards his family and his determination to change the trajectory of his life. The origin of his sense of duty, which they had only been observing in the tasks assigned to him so far, became clear to them now. Here was a man hardwired to uphold his responsibilities to the best of his ability and then some.
They also caught up on some sleep. Finally, around 8 p.m., the men of the D Coy started their climb towards their objective. Before these young, angry men could digest the fact that the enemy had already killed one of their dear soldiers, they lost many more soldiers in the unexpected shelling that ensued. One soldier, Havaldar Jagdeep, was hit by a splinter, which pierced through his helmet. Many of their weapons were also damaged, the fire base was disrupted, and so, before the determined, audacious men of 2 Raj Rif could begin their task, they saw it all break down in front of their own eyes. From where they were standing, they could see the Three Pimples complex clearly, but from where the enemy was standing, they (the enemy) could point a gun exactly at anyone they chose. At this point, even a rock rolling down from the top could be a powerful weapon for the enemy.
In such unthinkable times, there are only two things that work for a soldier—faith and astounding courage. Especially in this second attack for 2 Raj Rif, the only choice the men had was to pick up the pieces of their broken hearts and morale and make the enemy pay for the loss of their brothers, their buddies, their squad, their leaders. What helped them were the words of the 2 Raj Rif commanding officer, Lt Col Ravindranath, who in their sainik sammelan earlier had shaken them out of their sense of loss and pain, and said sternly to them, “You are the undefeatable Rajputs and Jats, and you have to take the Three Pimples complex from the Pakistanis. This day is what we join the army for, and today the country needs us to show up and we have to prove our mettle.” These words were enough to wake up the sleeping tiger in each soldier’s heart.
From Nimbu Saab: The Barefoot Naga Kargil Hero By Neha Dwivedi and Diksha Dwivedi with Neingutoulie Kengurüse (Harper Collins). Edited excerpt reproduced with permissions.