00:00Vikram jumped out of the bunker and he got engaged into a hand-to-hand combat with three
00:09Pakistani soldiers which he definitely killed, but unfortunately from a very short distance
00:13a sniper which came and it hit Vikram on his chest, there was a splinter which hit his
00:19front portion of the body and Vikram laid down his life for taking .4875 back from the
00:25enemy.
00:26The entire unit which was fighting the battle, they ensured that they killed all the enemy
00:32soldiers.
00:33The Indian Army got success in recapturing this feature .4875.
00:37Hello everyone, my name is Vishal Batra and I am a younger identical twin to Captain Vikram
00:46Batra.
00:47I am here at Dras to pay my tributes to the valiant soldiers who laid down their life during
00:52Operation Vijay which was fought in 1999.
00:58This small town Dras, it's a lush green valley which is a part of the district Kargil and
01:05the battle of Kargil, the battle of Dras was fought in 1999 which was named as Operation
01:10Vijay later.
01:11If you look around the wall which is here, this wall was primarily created so as to not
01:17let the enemy know that we have the vehicles which ply on this.
01:20It was primarily also to save the ongoing traffic from any of the bombardment which
01:24is coming right from these valleys which are in my extreme right.
01:28If you remember, you know, Vikram was a part of two missions, the .5140 and the .4875.
01:36On my extreme right, if you look at extremely the point, the finger where I am pointing
01:42it out is the Batra top which was earlier called as 4875.
01:48You can actually see the entire top is covered with the snow and this town Dras is the second
01:57coldest inhabited place in the world.
02:00The lowest temperature ever recorded in this town is minus 60 degree.
02:03While I am here in the month of July, the temperature is almost zero degrees.
02:08If I have to just tell you with limited knowledge I have and the understanding I had about the
02:13battle of 4875, it is considered as one of the toughest battle of the Operation Vijay.
02:20Unfortunately, we lost 25 of our men.
02:23We lost two officers, Captain Vikram Batra from the 13th Battalion of Jammu and Kashmir
02:28Rifles and Captain Anuj Nair from 17th JAT.
02:33The bravery shown by these young officers was incredible.
02:35If you look at the height, this feature is almost at a height of 17,000 feet.
02:43And think of the Indian soldiers going up because the enemy was sitting on a very strategic
02:48location.
02:49The entire enemy was sitting up and our Indian soldiers had to go up while climbing down
02:54with all our weapons, ammunition and armory.
02:56If you look at the slope, that is the South Spur and I think that's the place where the
03:01Indian Army started moving and inching up towards when they had to really annihilate
03:05the enemy from the feature 4875.
03:07It was on 5th of July when Vikram, who was a part of the recon party from 13th Jammu
03:14and Kashmir Rifles was asked to move up and of course a very heavy battle was already
03:18on 17th JAT and two Nagas were already engaged in the heavy exchange of fire with the enemy
03:24and it was on 5th July when Vikram started moving up and since he had to evacuate the
03:30enemy, this task was given additionally to the 13th Battalion of Jammu and Kashmir Rifles.
03:35One junior fellow officer of Vikram left in Naveen, who was on the mission, who stepped
03:42out of the bunker and unfortunately a burst happened in which he was injured badly and
03:48then Vikram felt that his comrade has fallen and he has to evacuate the soldier and that
03:55is the time when Vikram moved out of the bunker and he tried to evacuate Naveen and when Naveen
04:02was evacuated, he knew that there was a very heavy exchange of fire which was coming in.
04:05There was a heavy machine gun which was continuously firing while the battle was already on.
04:10When Vikram reached a little on the top, he realised that it was a flat ledge and I can
04:16tell you why it is a flat ledge because I was fortunate enough to climb up Batra top
04:20which is 4875 on 7th of July 2019 to commemorate 20th of Kargil and when I went up, if you
04:27look at that feature, it is so flat that you can clearly see the entire Shrinagar-Leh
04:33highway.
04:34You can see each and every vehicle while flying so it was a very strategic feature that Indian
04:40Army had to get this feature back and that was the time when Vikram jumped out of the
04:46bunker and he got engaged into a hand-to-hand combat with three Pakistani soldiers which
04:53he definitely killed but unfortunately, there was another from a very short distance, a
04:58sniper which came and it hit Vikram on his chest and there was a splinter which hit his
05:03front portion of the body and Vikram laid down his life taking the point 4875 back from
05:08the enemy.
05:09At that time, the entire unit which was fighting the battle, they ensured that they killed
05:15all the enemy soldiers and the Indian Army got success in recapturing this feature 4875
05:22and later on of course, this feature 4875 was renamed as Batra Top.
05:26If you go to its right side, this is basically a whale black and you can look at on the extreme
05:32pointed peak which is there on the right is Rhino.
05:36So this entire feature of Batra Top saw 25 casualty.
05:41As I mentioned, we lost two officers, Captain Vikram Batra and Captain Arun Nair and this
05:48is the only feature which has a rare distinction of having three medals, two Param Vir Chakra
05:53which was given to Vikram Batra and Rifleman Sanjay Kumar who was another brave soldier
05:58from 30th Battalion Jammu and Kashmir Rifles and Captain Arun Nair who was awarded a Mahavir
06:03Chakra posthumously.
06:05I think this saga and the tale of each of the feature what the Indian Army captured
06:08is incredible and I pay my general salute to each of the men who fought the battle and
06:13of course, my kudos to the Indian Army who is still guarding these peaks.
06:17Whenever I come here, every alternate year I have been coming to this small town, this
06:20small valley.
06:21It's something like more of a shrine and it's also to relive the memories of Vikram
06:26and all other soldiers who laid down their life.
06:29Once again, my sincere wishes and greetings to everyone on the occasion of the 25 years
06:36of Operation Vijay.
06:38My all wishes and prayers for the families of the soldiers.
06:42Definitely a big salute once again to all the men in the uniform and we are proud of
06:47the Indian Army and I am proud to be an Indian.
06:49Jai Hind!
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