Amidst the rising tensions between India and Pakistan, a few sane voices have been asking for peace and not war. Diksha Dwivedi, daughter of Major CB Dwivedi, a Kargil martyr, speaks to The Quint about the real cost of war.
“However many times I say this, it will not be enough. When a soldier fights in a battlefield, what his family goes through is something that only people like us can understand. Just losing my father was not a war. To re-start life after him has been a war, has been a struggle. And now I think we, my family, my sister are so close to this situation that every time something like this happens, we keep crying thinking that one more family will have to go through what we went through in 1999.”Diksha Dwivedi
Major CB Dwivedi was 20 when he joined the Army in 1981. He was commissioned into the Regiment of Artillery as a gunner.
His unit, the 315 Field Regiment, was the first artillery unit to be deployed in Drass in the initial phase of the Kargil War on 14 May 1999. Major Dwivedi and his men were responsible for supporting the operations of four other regiments, who went on to capture Tololing, Point 5140, Black Tooth, Tiger Hill and Gun Hill from the enemy.
Between 14 and 31 May, the unit went through an incredibly difficult period as they had to fire at one location and constantly keep moving to the next one in order to avoid detection. They were responsible for the safety of the infantry units, and were often faced with two choices at night – to either stop firing and wait for dawn, or to keep firing to protect the infantry. Major Dwivedi always chose the latter to provide a constant shield for his fellow men.
The tension between India and Pakistan escalated after both countries engaged in dogfight on 27 February, a day after Indian fighter jets carried out air strikes across the Line of Control, destroying the biggest terrorist-training camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) in Balakot. The air strikes came in the wake of the JeM-orchestrated Pulwama terror attack which claimed the lives of 40 Indian CRPF personnel on 14 February.
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