Lt Abhay Pareek became a martyr this day (June 10) 22 years ago. An anti-tank missile felled him. As the profusely bleeding officer was being evacuated, he saluted his commanding officer, greeted his buddies and troops, and said: “main wapas aaonga… I shall come back”. He didn’t.
Lt Pareek was a young man of many parts. The best tabla player in his school, an excellent basketball and volleyball player, his school's best NCC Cadet, and a three-time boxing champion, he was commissioned in the Indian Army’s 69 Field Regiment in September 2000, and posted on the line of control in Jammu & Kashmir.
As fate would have it, 14 months later terrorists attacked the Indian Parliament, shocking the world, and angering the nation. The Indian Army mobilised in what came to be called Operation Parakram. By early January 2001, the mobilisation was complete, and Indian and Pakistan armies were in literally eyeball to eyeball position on the border and the line of control.
One of the several thousand young men in that position was young Lt Pareek—as a forward observation officer in a post just about 100-150 meters from the enemy post on the line of control.
The ‘frozen’ position lasted months. On May 14, 2002, terrorists entered the Army’s Kaluchak camp and massacred several unarmed soldiers and families. An enraged Lt Pareek ensured continuous repulsive firing from his area and caused massive damage to the enemy posts and establishments. A narrative of the daring initiative shared by his Unit was that during heavy mortar and artillery fire exchange, one of his men got stuck up and froze due to heavy shelling. Without any concern about his personal safety and security, young Lt Pareek went out of his bunker amidst the heavy shelling, lifted the frozen and scared jawan, and carried him back to the bunker, thus saving his life. The news reached his battalion Headquarters; his commanding officer took pride in his valiant act but also advised him to refrain from such daredevilry.
Sporadic firing continued on the LoC. Retaliating to enemy fire, Lt Pareek opened massive attacks on the enemy post causing them colossal loss of men and material.
But destiny had its own plans. During a firing on June 10, 2002, he was severely hit through the waistline by an anti-tank missile shot by the enemy. When the enemy firing did not allow them to evacuate him, his troops carried him through the mountain trail. But soon he asked his men to let him walk as they must be tired by carrying him.
Finally, when they reached the helipad, he saluted his senior officer, told him not to share the news of his injury with his father, and greeted his men. Telling them he missed his mother that day, whom he had lost when he was only 13 or 14, he closed his eyes forever.
Later they found a diary in his pocket in which he had written:
Have a heart that never hardens
A temper that never tires
And a touch that never hurts….
His school, the Govt Girls Higher Secondary School, Jaipur, has since been renamed in his honour.
