M A I N   N E W S

Death is just a shell-burst away

SOMEWHERE IN THE NORTHERN SECTOR, Aug 25 (UNI) — Rifleman Rajkumar stays some 3000 km away from his family, but seldom feels homesick.

Posted barely 100 metres from the Line of Control (LoC), he has a job demanding both dedication and teamwork. He has a set of colleagues so intimately friendly with each other that the young jawan (name changed) has little time and still less the urge to think about home.

“In a way we miss our homes. In a way we don’t,” Rajkumar says. “Here we all live like members of the same family. We are doing a 24-hour duty. There is nothing like sitting idle.”

A group of soldiers echo the sentiments. “We will sacrifice our lives, but not an inch of our land.”

Suddenly a shell-burst is heard from across the LoC. Its close enough to send shudders down the spines of the journalists. “Don’t worry. This is usual here,” Rajkumar says. “During the night you will hear more.”

A few seconds after a barrage of bullets is fired from the Pakistani side, the company commander asks the Jawans to train their own guns. Armed with binoculars, he tries to trace the source of the firing and orders retaliatory action.

Advanced weapons swing into action as the Indian side retaliate. Through a pair of binoculars this correspondent can see Pakistani soldiers running for cover and within a quarter of a minute they vanish from the scene.

“They have hidden inside a bunker, saheb,” the gunman tells the officer — a young Major. “Ok. Stop,” he orders and adds, “check rakho” (keep vigil).

When the Jawans come to know that the group of reporters visiting their post are planning to spend a night with them along the LoC, they rejoice. “See how emotional they are when they meet their countrymen,” says the officer.

“I wish I could offer five-star treatment to you guys. But our hospitality will not be poor either. I hope you people will appreciate,” he says while accompanying the journalists to his bunker.

“Tell me, how was the journey?” he asks. “Good and hectic”, is the reply from journalists, part of the Defence Correspondents Course-2000.

It takes nearly four hours to reach the forward post from the bases. A tough journey by jeeps, and then a trek to the bunkers. The road is slushy after a brief spell of rain, but the weather is otherwise pleasant. Clusters of boulders on the rugged terrain pose no problems for the armymen in detecting movements on the posts on the other side.

“We have been here for long... We know each and every path. Even the narrow ones,” says one of the Jawans accompanying the scribes. “In winter, it turns taxing. Walking becomes very difficult. Running can end up perhaps in a collapse. But at times we have to scurry for cover because of artillery shelling,” he adds.

The officer’s bunker looks more like a library. It has the obligatory a radio, television set and tape-recorder, but most of its space is taken up by defence journals, news magazines and newspapers.