The bodies were handed over to the Pakistani soldiers at a border post in the Kargil sector itself. The soldiers killed during shelling by Indian artillery guns ahead of Kargil theatre on the southern Siachen glacier had been buried according to full Islamic rites by Indian soldiers, sources said.

Top level sources in Army Headquarters said that the grandparents of one of the buried soldiers, Captain Taimur Malik, are non-resident Pakistanis living in England. They approached the Indian Defence Attache in London and pleaded their case. He in turn got in touch with Chief of Army Staff General Ved Prakash Malik in New Delhi.

Pakistan's request also came in the Director General Military Operations (DGMO) level talks that take place every week. Sources told The Indian Express that Malik's grandfather in a moving letterwrote that he was certified blind and his wife was suffering from angina. The couple have been living in England for the past 49 years.

The septuagenarian Malik also wrote that Captain Malik's mother was suffering from skin cancer and doctors had given her very little time to live.

``From the Pakistani army we have learnt that he along with four other soldiers went missing in the general area of Peak 5770 near the southern glacier on the night of June 27. His mother wants him buried at the ancestral grave and wants to pray by the grave side for her remaining years,'' the letter read.

The family also wrote that their hearts went out for the casualties and pain suffered by Indian soldiers and their families during the Kargil crisis.

Moved by the letter, the Army decided to exhume the body of Captain Malik and four other soldiers with him. ``We want to return all the bodies and also the prisoners of war. To honour their request the bodies were handed over yesterday,'' a top officer in Army Headquarterstold The Indian Express today. ``Apparently this Captain's family is also very well connected politically and there was tremendous pressure on the Pakistan army to retrieve his body. And because they knew the general area where the officer had gone missing, they approached us,'' said another officer.

Army officers here said that initially they were not too keen to exhume bodies, ``but the Pakistani side was pleading,'' and therefore to honour their request it was done. The bodies were exhumed two days ago and then brought down to Kargil.

``Here at Post 43, where all exchanges take place the five bodies were handed over with full military honours yesterday evening. The Pakistani Army has thanked us for this gesture and have even hoped that once the Prisoners of War (PoW) wrangle is sorted out, the eight soldiers in Indian custody could be repatriated. We told them we hoped for the best ourselves and were more than keen to return them. But the ball lies in their court,'' he added.