An Indian Gorkha officer dies in Kashmir while trying to rescue his Nepali comrade. His grieving parents want to dedicate their lives to set up a Peace Park in the world's highest battlefield.
LT.Nawang Kapadia's death along the India-Pakistan line of control in Kashmir on 11 November would perhaps have been just another statistic in that endless and costly Himalayan war. But two things made it different: Nawang was the son of renowned Bombay based mountaineer, explorer and writer, Harish Kapadia. And he died while trying to rescue one of the Nepali soldiers under his command, Havaldar Chitra Bahadur Thapa of Besisahar, Lamjung.
Nawang belonged to the 4thBattalion of the 3rd Gorkha Rifles, was commissioned only in September this year and had just joined the platoon under his command in Kupwara near the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar two weeks before he was killed. The 4th Battalion had been involved in operations to stop infiltration across the line of control, and had previously taken casualties from the battle-hardened Afghans of the Al Omar Tanzeem group. On 10 November, the battalion received information about a large-scale incursion across the border nearby, and Nawang led his platoon on a search-and-destroy mission. The soldiers came under fire from a dozen or so Afghans hiding in a nearby forest. Chitra Bahadur was advancing towards the gun positions when he was hit in the stomach. Nawang ordered covering fire and went in with his own guns blazing for the rescue. He slung Chitra Bahadur over his shoulder and had started rushing back when he was hit in the face and got killed instantly.
The attackers were all killed, and identified as belonging to a mercenary band of Afghans. Chitra Bahadur was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Srinagar, but died on the way. Chitra Bahadur was Nawang's "Guruji", an older Gorkha soldier whose responsibility it is to teach every new Gorkha officer the nuances of being Nepali: customs, cooking, songs and language. Recalls his father, Harish: "When he last called, Nawang told us everything was fine, he was missing fish, but he was enjoying dal-bhat and even practised a few Nepali words."