DHA (BATALIK), JULY 16: Major Saravanan's heroic fight to death is well documented. What was not known was how a group of locals, fought unsurmountable odds and enemy bullets to rescue his body so that his family could perform the last rites.

For the villagers of Garkhun and Dha, trekking the mountains was not new. But since May, they had a different mission at hand, and the circumstances under which they had to perform the task were unusual.

On July 7, a group of nine villagers from Garkhun climbed the treacherous mountains of Batalik for the second time since the skirmish broke out. Their mission: to search for the bodies of soldiers who lost their lives in the battle. These included the bodies of Major Sarvanan who fell to the bullets of the intruders in May. After four days of hide and seek with Pakistani artillery shells and sniper shots, the group finally managed to bring down the four bodies.

``Major Sarvanan's body was lying at theentrance of the bunker that he and his party had attacked. There were a number of bodies scattered all around the area,'' said Tsering Dorjay, one amongst the nine-member group.

Dorjay is the headmaster of Government Middle School, Garkhun. He had volunteered to go up alongith his colleagues, Kawang Tundup, two students, Tashi Lundup and T Namgyal, and five farmers of the village. ``We had first attempted to reach Major Sarvanan's body on May 30 but couldn't make it because they (Pakistanis) could clearly see us going up the ridge and started firing,'' Dorjay said. ``In fact a local porter Tashi Dawa who was also going up just a few metres ahead of us was hit in the leg,'' he said.

``The school had to be closed as most of the villagers, especially women and children fled for safety,'' Tundup said. ``So we spent these 40 days assisting the Army. We carried load for them upto the forward posts as voluntary porters,'' he added.

The village panchayat had also made arrangements to feed the troops in theinitial days of the operation. ``We created a small mess here for the troops going up and offered food for them. We also arranged volunteers to work as porters and guides for the Army since the fighting broke here,'' said Tsring Gangphil, member of the village panchayat.

The villagers are relieved that the operation seems to have finally concluded. The last blasts were heard on July 13 and since then there has been a complete calm in the entire area.

In the silence of the ceasefire, stories of the war gradually start trickling down. A jawan, Shatrughan, was accounted for as dead. He was a part of the assault party that was led by Major Sarvanan. Interestingly, Shatrughan returned alive. He had been hit by a bullet in the leg and had to hide himself among the bodies of his companions as cross firing continued for three days. Shatrughan walked all the way down despite his injury, at times rolled down the steep ridge and finally reached the base camp. He had carried on despite ``his wound being badlyinfested by maggots,'' said Dorjay. ``It is only strong will that keeps you alive in war,'' he said.

Shepherd Sonam Norfil had returned home after weeks. The family was shocked to know his story. Nobody knew he had been up in the battle zone as he had taken his herd of goats and sheep across the Indus to climb up Broke peaks that was out of even the shelling range.

Being an elderly shepherd of Dha, Nrofil was called by the Army to the Brigade Headquarters from Broke itself. He was asked to guide the first party of Ladakh Scouts to go up and face the enemy. ``I was taken up in a helicopter to Gansuk and the sahib (commander) was also with me. They gave me food and asked me to relax for the day. At eight in the evening we moved up. There were around 300 jawans and two officers of Ladakh Scouts accompanying me. After an hour, the moon rose and it was easy to climb. We walked till the sahib asked us to hide beneath the rocks as the day was about to dawn,'' he said.

Norfil said he saw fourPakistani bunkers from a place called Chutpu. ``We had not eaten anything for two days now and were still hiding beneath the rocks as shells were landing everywhere. My coat was even scorched by sparks of the shells. As there was a temporary halt in the shelling we started moving up again. I was walking ahead of all,'' he said.

``I was talking to a jawan when suddenly, two bullets came from somewhere and hit the jawan in his chest. He died immediately,'' he said.

In the morning, the contingent reached Appur and the Ladakh Scouts captured two bunkers that had been vacated by the Pakistanis. ``I showed the sahib the safest pass up. As the troops started climbing up, I returned back as my job was done,'' he said simply.