India, July 19 -- The report of the Kargil Review Committee chaired by K Subrahmanyam (tabled in Parliament in February 2000) described Op Vijay as a "unique high-altitude war", peerless in the annals of global alpine hostilities. Not only was the Indian Army (IA) facing an entrenched enemy backed by artillery and infantry battalion support weapons, but it also had to contend with the challenge of nature. In the guise of a virtually breathless and treeless topography, weather extremities, and an unmapped labyrinthine of invaded ridges and peaks that towered to 19,000 feet.

But nature cut both ways, in the end contributing to the rout of the enemy, which fled abandoning 244 bodies. The IA showed grace under fire and buried them in nameles...