Guwahati: Meghalaya is remembering its Kargil War martyr Keishing Clifford Nongrum, who made the supreme sacrifice for the love of his country on this very day 21 years ago.
"Captain Keishing Clifford Nongrum is Meghalaya's brave son who sacrificed his life during the Kargil war. On his 21st death anniversary, we pay homage to his courage and his supreme sacrifice for our nation", Conrad Sangma, the Chief Minister of the state, wrote on Twitter.
Captain Keishing Clifford Nongrum belonged to the 12 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry and was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, India's second-highest gallantry award, for exemplary valor in combat during operations in the Kargil War in 1999. The stories of his valor are sung to this very day.
According to the Indian Army, Lieutenant Keishing Clifford Nongrum was tasked to assault the feature from the southeastern direction on the night of 30 June/1 July 1999, in the operations to capture Point 4812 in the Batalik Sector. Although the Meghalaya jawan killed 6 enemy troopers, he was severely wounded during the operation and eventually succumbed to his injuries. His act of bravery, it is said, resulted in the ultimate capture of Point 4812.
Sangma's homage to the Meghalaya brave has come one day after Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal's tribute to Assam brave, Captain Jintu Gogoi, whose name has also become the stuff of legends, just like legions of Kargil war soldiers who were killed in confrontations with Pakistani troopers.
The Kargil conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LOC) in the most recent full-blown war between the two neighboring nations. After the conflict was over, India gave its official casualty figures as 527 dead and 1,363 wounded, with 1,042 Pakistani soldiers being killed in the armed conflict. Although the war resulted in a decisive victory for India, the deaths of the jawans killed in the prime of their youths are still being mourned to this very day.