Red urn on a bold Kargil rock

It could never have been imagined before the war that soil from the forsaken heights would mean so much in a faraway Assam home

A quarter of a century ago, the night of June 29 and 30 shattered the lives of the Gogois dwelling in Khumtai village (Gulaghat) in Assam and their son’s young fiancee and All India Radio (AIR) presenter, Anjana Parashar.

Lt Rishi Singh dispersing ashes of Capt Jintu Gogoi on Kaala Pathar during the war. (Maj P Raj Narayan)

Capt Jintu Gogoi, Vir Chakra, of the 17 Garhwal Rifles laid down his life heroically battling Pakistan Army intrusions on Kaala Pathar (KP) --- Point 4927, 16,165 feet --- in Batalik during the Kargil war. His body fell off the cliffs and was retrieved 12 days later following the personal intervention of Prime Minister AB Vajpayee. Jintu’s father, Honorary Flg Offr TR Gogoi (retd), who had himself fought the 1962 war, decided to embark on an extraordinary soul journey.

After the cremation of Jintu’s body in Khumtai, Gogoi despatched a portion of his son’s ashes back to the towering battlefield. “We received Jintu’s ashes in a “matka” bound in red cloth. The Gogois wanted the ashes to be dispersed at KP where no stream flowed. Jintu’s battalion was still deployed on the Batalik heights. We tasked then Lt Rishi Singh (later Colonel) to bring up the urn to KP and he merged the ashes with the blood-stained soil and stones where Jintu and Garhwali soldiers had laid down their lives,” Col P Raj Narayan (retd), who was then a Major of 17 Garhwal Rifles, told this writer.

(Left) Gogois hold urn of Kaala Pathar battlefield soil in their Khumtai home; and red ‘matka’ holding Capt Jintu’s ashes dispersed on Kaala Pathar during the war. (Saurabh Gogoi and Maj P Raj Narayan)

There was another journey that Gogoi wanted to undertake. He wanted to climb to KP, pay homage to his son and feel the communion with the soul of the battlefield where his son’s spirit dwelt. But it was too steep a feature for the aged Gogoi to conquer. In 2023, the army decided to provide him solace. Soldiers climbed to KP, collected soil from the battlefield and despatched it to the Gogois in a red urn. The handful of Kargil soil was sacred and symbolic of sacrifice, solace and remembrance.

“For us, Jintu never died, his spirit dwelt among the rocks of KP. He still lives there. So, we sent the ashes back to re-establish our connection. Last year, the army sent us soil from KP. It was as if Jintu had sent us something in return, to reaffirm our eternal bonds. A part of the soil, I will sprinkle at Jintu’s new memorial coming up at Khumtai,” Gogoi told this writer.

It could never have been imagined before the war that soil from the forsaken heights would mean so much in a faraway Assam home. The peaks of Kargil had not even been mapped and it was only when the war began that the Army gave them handy names. Terrain shaped the battle and played a life-and-death role. “The approach to KP was treacherous, precipitous and slippery with gravel. There were no trees to take cover. There were massive granite boulders, some as big as a living room. Boulders gave us shelter but we had to move out and climb towards the enemy and at that point we got exposed. The enemy used rocks, boulders and caves for defences. It built “sangers” (bunkers of rock piles), and rolled rocks down on troops. Bullets hit rocks, ricocheted, splintered and entered bodies causing multiple wounds,” Panchkula-based Lt Col PK Jetley (retd), who was hit by three bullets during the KP attack, told this writer.

With Jintu’s death, his romance with Anjana which had culminated in an engagement on June 2, 1999, took a haunting, tragic turn. They had been in love for a decade since their college days in Kurukshetra. When deployed on the Keran LoC, Kashmir, at Kunjiwala spur (KW) in 1997, the love-stricken Jintu would pine to hear her sweet voice. He would request Raj Narayan to switch on the radio and relay Anjana’s AIR broadcasts via army communication sets. “Instead of Jintu flying his bride back to Khumtai, Anjana flew her warrior’s body home from Delhi to Assam. She refused to marry anyone else after that and would not heed her parents’ pleas. We wanted her to move on in life. My wife and I visited her in Palam, Delhi, a few years after the war. She was vehement, she would be faithful to Jintu’s memory. So, we went on a hunger strike and threatened to cancel our air tickets to Assam unless she promised she would be open to marriage. She relented and married a software engineer and has two children. Look at the ways of the divine, her daughter was born on November 21, which is Jintu’s birthday,” Gogoi said.