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Kargil Vijay Diwas: Capt Keishing Clifford Nongrum charged towards enemy bunkers to avenge his men, sacrificing himself
Col Virendra Bhalothia recalls Captain Keishing Clifford Nongrum's dedication to his men during the Kargil War. He sacrificed himself serving the nation.
Captain Keishing Clifford Nongrum’s commanding officer during the Kargil War, Col Virendra Bhalothia (Retd), remembers him vividly as the “darling of his men”. “They were ready to die for him,” Col Bhalothia recalls. “He was commanding a sub-unit of 20–25 men and would go with them everywhere — even when it wasn’t necessary. They were fully capable of carrying out the task themselves, but he’d still accompany them. So they truly loved and looked up to him,” he adds. It’s no surprise then that when eight of his men were killed during the assault on Point 4812 on the night of June 30 (1999), Captain Clifford was “infuriated”. He charged towards enemy bunkers, firing, hurling grenades and killing six enemy soldiers in close combat.
Just hours earlier, Clifford and his team had scaled a vertical cliff, catching the enemy off guard. But their column was soon pinned down under heavy fire. “Clifford knew time was running out. If we didn’t dislodge the enemy before daybreak, we’d be sitting ducks,” says Col Bhalothia, who shared handwritten notes about the officer and the operation with us. “He moved to the second bunker, where an enemy machine gun was creating havoc, and attempted to snatch it. At that point, enemy soldiers from the third bunker spotted him and fired a volley of bullets that hit him.”
Captain Clifford’s sheer bravery and disregard for personal safety stunned the enemy, giving his men a chance to regroup and continue the assault. True to the spirit of 12 JAKLI, the post was overrun before daybreak. “He succumbed to his injuries — but not before hoisting the Tricolour atop Point 4812.”
For his leadership and extraordinary valour, the 24-year-old officer from Shillong was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, India’s second-highest wartime gallantry honour.
In a remarkable twist of fate, a diary recovered after the mission — belonging to a Pakistani officer — revealed that Clifford had unknowingly faced the same officer six months earlier during a deployment at Tiger Saddle in Siachen. “The locations and incidents described in the diary matched Clifford’s deployment. It was destiny that they ended up facing each other again,” says Col Bhalothia.
Among Col Bhalothia’s notes, one incident stands out: During a patrol, Clifford and his men were caught in a snow blizzard. As his soldiers began to fall ill, he put them in sleeping bags in buddy pairs and stayed outside in the freezing cold, checking on them through the night and chest-pumping them to keep them conscious. “It was a miracle they survived — just some frostbite and chilblains.”
Off the battlefield , his CO remembers him as a highly motivated youngster with a daredevil streak. “He loved music, football, outdoor activities and had a great temperament. He was physically very fit and couldn’t wait to get into action.”
Col Bhalothia also recalls Clifford's father's message to him after he was told about his son's supreme sacrifice for the nation-
“He said- 'Colonel, my personal loss apart, I request you not to stop till you achieve your goal. Clifford's loss should not hold you back. It should rather inspire you to carry on boldly.' This is a very rare and exemplary response of a father who has just been informed that his son has made supreme sacrifice for his nation.”
