Drass, July 26 -- Twenty-seven years have passed since India emerged victorious in the Kargil War, reclaiming its mountain peaks from Pakistani intruders during Operation Vijay.
The nation has moved on, generations have changed and the battlefields have fallen silent. But for the families of the soldiers who never returned, time has remained frozen in the summer of 1999.
On the 27th Kargil Vijay Diwas, the Indian Army offered the next of kin (NoKs) of the martyrs something deeply personal, a piece of the very land where their loved ones fought their final battle.
In an emotional ceremony at the Kargil War Memorial in Drass, 40 urns containing sacred soil collected from battlefields across the Drass, Kargil and Batalik sectors were presen...