On August 29, 1999, during the Kargil war, Major Sudhir Kumar Walia with a squad of five commandos was on a “search and destroy” operation in the dense jungle of Hafruda Forest in Kupwara district, Jammu & Kashmir.
The squad suddenly chanced upon a well-camouflaged hideout housing 20 terrorists.
He killed nine of the 20 militants and sustained gunshot wounds in the process. Though he was unable to move, he continued to give orders to his team till they succeeded. He allowed himself to be evacuated only 35 minutes after the operation ended. He was airlifted to the army base hospital but he succumbed to injuries en route.
There are many such real stories of martyrs, which are compiled on Honourpoint. Describing itself as an “online memorial for every Indian soldier”, honourpoint.faujipoint.com was launched around three-and-a-half months ago by three retired Air Force officers — Wing Commanders M A Afraz, Rajendra Prasad and L K Chaubey.
“The aim of this initiative is to bring the inspirational stories of our martyrs on a single platform and take it to as many Indians as possible to encourage them to do something equally meaningful for the country in their own way,” said Afraz.
The website is now active with a social media presence. Profiles of more than 10,000 soldiers who have sacrificed their lives on the war field of Kargil, Indo-Pak and Sino-India wars have been uploaded on the site, from data gathered over two years.
Afraz, Prasad and Chaubey started their work, researching for content, searching the army sites, media reports, books, etc. for information on the martyrs and compiled the information on the website.
Afraz explains, “There has been no compilation of data of martyrs in the past. Their death appears in the news and people forget about it. We want to give them a tribute online. People should know who their real heroes are,” he said. The team hopes to put together details of 24,000 martyrs from the armed forces in the future.
“Every website visitor can contribute content about martyrs by signing up and also pay tribute to the bravehearts. With this website, we hope to keep their stories alive and generate a sense of patriotism among the youth. We plan to raise funds to help the martyrs’ families,” he added.
The team, which is now operating without external funding, connects with families of the martyrs to ensure that the information on the website is authentic. Their Facebook page has over 40,000 followers and some of the content is managed by the family members of the bravehearts.
Published 08 August 2017, 20:35 IST