Dras War Memorial

Drass War Memorial. On the background is the name of soldiers who died during the battle, and a memorial for them in the front.

Image installed at the Kargil War Memorial, Drass

Dras War Memorial, also known as the Vijaypath, is a war memorial built by the Indian Army, located in Dras, in the foothills of the Tololing Hill. The memorial is located about 5 km from the city centre across the Tiger Hill. It is located on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway 1D.^[1] The memorial is in the memory of the soldiers and officers of the Indian Army who were killed during the 1999 conflict between India and Pakistan. The conflict later became known as the Kargil War. The memorial has a huge epitaph with names of all the officers and soldiers who died in war.^[2] Kargil Vijay Diwas is celebrated on 26 July every year at the memorial simultaneously the Prime Minister of India pays tribute to the soldiers at Amar Jawan Jyothi at the India Gate, New Delhi.^[1]

The main attraction of the whole memorial is the Sandstone wall, in the open, which has the names of all the Indian army personnel, who laid their lives during the Kargil war besides there is also a souvenir shop. Visitors to the memorial can also see from there, some of the peaks that the Indian army captured back from Pakistan.^[3] A giant national flag, weighing 15 kg was hoisted at the Kargil war memorial to commemorate the 13th anniversary of India’s victory in the war

Galleries

Manoj Pandey War Gallery

This Gallery is named after captain Manoj Kumar Pandey, an officer of the Indian Army of the regiment 1/11 Gorkha Rifles, posthumously awarded the India's highest military honour, Param Vir Chakra for his audacious courage and leadership during adverse times. The gallery houses pictures of soldiers marching on the mountain slopes, soldiers cooking food in the upper reaches during the war and weapons recovered from the Pakistani forces. The gallery also has a picture of a dead Pakistani officer, Captain Karnal Sher Khan from the Northern Light Infantry, whose valour impressed the Indian Army so much so that it asked its Pakistani counterpart to honour him with Nishan-e-Haider, the highest military award in Pakistan. Khan was later felicitated posthumously.^[4]

References