‘I just want to call him Abbu once’: Kargil martyrs’ children keep their fathers alive in memory

For 26-year-old Md Afzal, the Kargil War is not just a chapter in India’s military history, it is the story of a father he never got to meet.

Standing at the Kargil War Memorial during the 27th Kargil Vijay Diwas commemorations, Afzal remembered his father, Lance Naik Mohd Aslam of 12 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAK LI), who laid down his life on July 3, 1999. Afzal was born two months later.

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There is only one wish he has carried all his life. “I have never seen him. I have grown up hearing stories about him from my mother, relatives and the soldiers who served with him,” he said, struggling to hold back tears. “If I could meet him just once… I would only want to call him ‘Abbu’. I never got the chance to say that even once.”

His voice faltered as he spoke of growing up without a father’s presence. “Everyone was there for me, but no one could fill that place. I missed having a father figure in my life. People tell me he was very humble, always cracking jokes and making everyone laugh. I just wish I could have met him once.”

Lance Naik Mohd Aslam displayed extraordinary courage during Operation Vijay. On the night of June 30-July 1, 1999, he was part of the assault team led by Captain Keishing Clifford Nongrum that recaptured the strategically important Point 4812 in the Batalik sector after fierce close-quarter combat against heavily fortified Pakistani positions. Gravely injured during the battle, he succumbed to his wounds on July 3, 1999.

For 35-year-old Sweety, daughter of Havildar Kartar Singh of 12 JAK LI, the memories are different. Unlike Afzal, she remembers her father. She was nine years old when he came home to Bhaderwah in Jammu and Kashmir in April 1999, unaware it would be his final visit before heading to war.

“Papa used to play so much with us,” she recalled with a faint smile. “Whenever he came home on leave, my siblings and I would get so excited. He would take us to the fields and work there himself. He loved farming as much as he loved being a soldier.”

Her mother, Kaushalya Devi, has spent the last 27 years raising four children on her own. “If I meet him today, I will tell him that I have fulfilled every responsibility he left behind,” she said with quiet dignity. “I raised our four children, educated them and settled them in life. I am sure he would be proud of us.”

Havildar Kartar Singh was among the soldiers who fought under Captain Amol Kalia to capture the strategically vital Point 5203 in the Batalik sector. Battling at an altitude of nearly 17,000 feet under relentless enemy fire, the team fought one of the fiercest engagements of the war. Havildar Kartar Singh succumbed to his injuries on June 10, 1999, after the operation that became a turning point in the battle for Batalik.

For 27-year-old Gaurav Yadav from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, memories exist only through photographs. He was barely one-and-a-half years old when his father, Sepoy Sanjay Singh Yadav of 13 Kumaon, was martyred.

Asked what he would do if given one last chance to meet his father, Gaurav did not hesitate. “I would hug him tightly and never let him go again. I can’t let go of the man who sacrificed everything for me and my mother.”

Thirty-one-year-old Sunil Malik remembers his father, Naik Bhim Singh, as a strict disciplinarian. He was nine when his father laid down his life during the battle to capture Tiger Hill. “We were scared of him as children because he was strict,” Malik recalled with a smile. “But today, if I could meet him, I wouldn’t hesitate. I would tell him everything that is in my heart. I would hug him and tell him how much I love him and how much his absence has affected us.”

The thought of visiting Tiger Hill, where his father fought his last battle, still overwhelms him. “No matter how many years have passed, I am still not prepared to stand at that place. Even deciding to come for the Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations was emotionally very difficult. Being here today is overwhelming.”

It was a reminder that while the Kargil War ended 27 years ago, its echoes still live on, in children who never heard their fathers’ voices, in wives who kept promises made decades ago, and in families who continue to carry both the pride of sacrifice and the pain of an empty chair at home.