Capt. Saurabh Kalia
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May and June 1999
Capt Saurabh Kalia (who was a lieutenant then) of 4 Jat Regiment was on a patrolling mission along with five other troops — Arjun Ram, Bhanwar Lal Bagaria, Bhika Ram, Moola Ram and Naresh Singh — in the Kargil heights on May 15, 1999. He was captured by Pakistani troops who had intruded into Indian territory. They were brutally tortured for 22 days.
Autopsy reports showed the Pakistanis had brutally tortured them by gouging out their eyes, piercing their ear drums with hot rods, cutting their lips, chipping their noses, chopping off limbs and private organs, breaking most of their teeth and bones, fracturing their skulls, and burning their bodies with cigarettes before killing them by shooting at their temples.
The Pakistani army handed over their mutilated bodies to Indian commanders at the Kargil sector on June 9, 1999. {It has been incorrectly reported that: 'After 15 days of captivity, Pakistan had returned Kalia's mutilated body through the Attari international border' It was not Attari, it was Kargil, and 22 days, not 15.
2012
Kalia's father, N K Kalia, moved the Supreme Court, seeking direction to the government to raise the issue of his son at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in Hague. NK Kalia (born: 1950) retired as a senior scientist from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
International support poured in for Captain Saurabh Kalia as Pakistan's former federal minister for human rights Ansar Burney vowed to back the family if the allegations of torture levelled against Islamabad were proved. UK-based rights activist Jas Uppal has also promised support to the Kalia family.
