NE honours Kargil heroes, pushes rebels back

KOHIMA, July 17: He's too told to walk five miles, up and down the mountain, so he stays at home. And the villagers come down, 85-year-old Pfulhousa can't believe it. They tell him stories of the funeral of his grandson Lt Neikezhakuo Kengrurusie, how thousands were there, including 29 Assam Rifles officers, all the way from Dimapur airport to Kohima and then to the family burial place at Pheza. His grandson dies hero in faraway Kargil. Nagaland hasn't seen anything like this since the death of its legendary leader Phizo in 1989....

.....The sense of pride also pervades villagers at Ancholi in Assam's Barpeta district. Like Pfulhousa, Bandhuram Das had seen Indian Army jawans raiding villages in his area in search of ULFA and Bodo militants. But when the 26 Madras Battalion officers and men carried the body of Bandhuram's only son Uddhab, a gunner in 197 Field Regiment, to the village, thousands of people from all around joined the grieving father in a collective show of pride and solidarity.