One of the very important, rather critical, tasks that cropped up when India was waging a war in the Kargil mountains a quarter century ago was to keep the troops on the frontline supplied. Adequately supplied with ammunitions, equipment, rations, carrying casualties to medical bases on stretchers and so on. No motorised transport was possible at most places. Even animals like mules and donkeys were often unable to step on these treacherous routes. It was only intrepid human beings, sturdy and fearless to the core, and ready to die who could do this job.
For tactical and strategic reasons, no civilians are allowed in most frontline formations. For the last kilometer, or two, it is the soldiers who carry the requisite goods to their bunkers and forward positions. This was and is the general thumb rule but it was not possible during many battles we had to fight to use battle-ready troops to be involved in menial tasks. Menial yes but so critical that waging war without completing those tasks was not possible.
In such times, Brigadier R S Chauhan, Commander 71 Sub Area Udhampur, approached Thakur K P Singh of Akhnoor to step in. Singh was given the task to mobilise hardy nationalist youths from nearby areas and persuade them for the task of volunteering to be porters on frontlines at Kargil! Colonel J P Singh (retired), brother of Thakur K P Singh, was then in active service and based in Northern Command headquarters at Udhampur.
According to Singh, he took first batch of 400 volunteers to Udhampur, from Akhnoor, on June 6, 1999. That was just the beginning and as many as 2,800 youths from the area enrolled themselves as volunteer porters to keep supply lines. Tanda cantt, near Akhnoor, became the recruiting ground for these volunteers and these porters were aptly named “Tanda Tiger Force’’.
Of them, at least seven died while on duty and the first to fall was Kamlesh Kumar of Hakla village near Chatha in Jammu. Later, three porters from Samba, Daler Singh, Madan Singh and Praduman Singh, cousins related to one another, also made the supreme sacrifice. Sham Singh of Ramnagar, Khagendra Singh, a Nepalese citizen and Tsering Motup of Ladakh also laid down their lives while carrying out sundry tasks on the frontlines.
Thakur K P Singh argues that these porters were no less than decorated soldiers and officers who fought in Kargil. He says without these porters, far more soldiers would have been needed to carry ammunitions, rations and evacuating casualties. In many cases, the lives of injured soldiers were saved as the porters carried them down the mountains as bullets whizzed past them. Unfortunately, however, by October 1999, barely three months after the war was over, these porters were sent home packing.
After a furore, special recruitment drives were organised by the senior officers posted at the Northern Command headquarters. One such drive carried out at Tanda led to at least 500 of these porters getting jobs in MES, Field Ordinance Depots (FODs), Military Farms and elsewhere. Some more got jobs due to intervention and on directions of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court.
Thakur K P Singh expresses unhappiness that too many of them were left high and dry. The names of the porters who died while discharging their duties valiantly in Kargil have not been included in the military history, he points out. As part of the silver jubilee celebrations, the names of these porters are likely to be mentioned in “Akhnoor Heritage Museum’’ soon. The museum is likely to be inaugurated on July 26, Kargil Vijay Diwas Rajat Jayanti.
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