Drass (Jammu and Kashmir), July 26 - The hills of Kargil came alive Sunday night in a glow of yellow lights as India marked the 10th anniversary of its military victory against Pakistan by paying homage to the over 500 soldiers killed while recapturing the treacherous peaks.

In an unprecedented military ceremony of its kind, army officers and soldiers, family members of those killed in the May-July 1999 fighting as well as people of this Shia-dominated region along the border of Jammu and Kashmir paid moving tributes to the martyrs of Kargil.

The finale of the two-day ceremony was a musical show by military bands drawn from all over the country followed by a spectacular lighting of Tiger Hill and Tololing, two of the strategic peaks Pakistani Islamist insurgents and camouflaged troops quietly took over before being beaten back in two months of bloody and at times hand to hand fighting.

An army officer said the military had never before organized such a function, which brought together families of soldiers from all over India to see for themselves from close range the imposing mountains where their loved ones died.

A candle light ceremony was also held at the War Memorial in Drass, now a throbbing town of 2,000 people that came under intense artillery fire from the Pakistanis in 1999 before the Indians hit back.

'It is an experience no soldier can ever forget,' said Lt. Gen. (Retd) Amar Nath Aul, who was a brigadier in 1999 and headed the Mountain Brigade that pushed back the intruders in the Drass sector.

'I salute the untiring commitment of my boys who fought against all odds and did not deter in laying down their lives when it came to protecting the country,' he added.

As officers and soldiers as well as families of many of the martyrs placed wreaths at the War Memorial early in the day, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saluted those killed in the conflict.