Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: Pakistan may have denied for long that Captain Saurabh Kalia, and five of his platoon members, were tortured and killed by its soldiers during the Kargil War of 1999, but a video that surfaced on the web has nailed the lie.

A video shot during a function of the Pakistani Army to felicitate Kargil heroes shows a Pak soldier reportedly admitting to killing Captain Kalia - former Pakistani interior minister Rehman Malik had claimed that Captain Kalia may have died in bad weather.

Detailing his exploits with the audience, Pakistani soldier Naik Bhule Khandan boasted about his ‘heroism’ and admitted that he and his fellow soldiers had killed Captain Kalia and five of his platoon members.

Bhule claimed that Kalia and others had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) into Pakistan and hence were shot dead.

"There was an attack on us from India on May 13, 1990. Six people from Indian side who were on a recce patrol advanced towards us. They wanted to capture our post and if they had succeeded they would guard the way going towards Leh." Bhule said.

"Their plan did not work out and instead we hunted them down," he added.

"When they came close we wanted to capture them but they started running away and then we started firing at them," he told the crowd.

"We shouted across the LoC to Indian forces to come and take away their dead soldiers. But their people never had the courage to take their dead bodies," he further said.

Captain Kalia and five other soldiers were captured by the Pakistan Army before the start of the war in 1999.

Captain Kalia of the 4 Jat Regiment was the first one to observe Pakistani troops on the Indian side of Line of Control in the Kargil sector.

He and five soldiers - Arjun Ram, Bhanwar Lal Bagaria, Bhika Ram, Moola Ram and Naresh Singh - were on a patrol of the Bajrang Post in the Kaksar sector of Jammu and Kashmir when they were taken captive by Pakistani troops on May 15, 1999.

They were tortured for weeks before being killed. Their mutilated bodies were handed over to India on June 9, 1999.

Autopsy reports had shown extreme torture including cigarette burns, ear drums pierced with hot iron rods and amputated limbs.

Captain Kalia`s father NK Kalia has taken his son`s torture-killing to the Supreme Court, saying Pakistan should be asked to apologise. He has also approached the United Nations Human Rights Commission asking it to probe his son`s death as a war crime.

NK Kalia has been pressing the Defence Ministry, the Army Headquarters, the External Affairs Ministry and the Prime Minister`s Office for over a decade to exert pressure on Pakistan to punish the Pakistani soldiers responsible for the act in violation of the Geneva Convention.