Mariappan Saravanan - Biography - The Kargil War

The Kargil War

The First Bihar Regiment was in Assam when the Kargil War broke out. They were ordered to move to Kargil, Jammu and Kashmir. From the heat of Assam to the cold of Kargil wasn't an easy change. There wasn't enough protective weather gear.

On the night of May 28, 1999, Major Sarvanan was assigned the task of capturing a well-fortified Pakistani position at 14,229 feet (4,337 m) in the Batalik sector. He and his men launched an attack at 04:00. Despite intensive firing from the enemy with artillery and automatic weapons, they charged into a volley of bullets. Saravanan fired a rocket launcher into the enemy position that killed two enemy soldiers. During the combat, he was hit by shrapnel and injured but continued fighting. His commanding officer ordered him to retreat because too many Indian soldiers had been injured. 'Genghis Khan fall back,' came the order. 'Not today sir, we are very close to the objective,' replied Sarvanan who was code named Genghis Khan. He killed two more invaders but this time he was hit by a bullet in the head at 06:30, his body nestled in the snow. A friend in Bangalore called his mother and told her Saravanan had died in Kargil. "We switched on the television and saw it in a news bulletin." Two days later, the official telegram arrived. "He was the first officer to fall".

The Vir Chakra was awarded to Saravanan posthumously and presented to his mother by President K. R. Narayanan. Its citation reads: "For our tomorrow..... he gave his today......".