'I join the entire nation in paying homage to the martyrs of the Kargil war. They sacrificed their lives in defence of Indian unity and integrity,' the prime minister said at the India Gate War Memorial in the national capital.

Like in the better known Tiger Hill and Tololing, heavy fighting took place in 1999 for the hills off Drass, the second coldest inhabited place in the world located about 60 km from Kargil town.

The entire region falls in Kargil district, giving the 1999 military showdown the name of 'Kargil war'.

The detection of Pakistan-backed Islamist insurgents and regular soldiers on the hills by nomads led to full-fledged fighting between Indian forces and the heavily armed infiltrators, almost triggering the fourth full-scale India-Pakistan war.

The battle for Drass was immortalised by the death of the young Captain Vikram Batra of 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles who took part in the capture of two peaks and then died fighting for Point 4,875.

He came under attack while trying to rescue an injured officer. His final words, according to his colleagues, were 'Jai Mata Di'!

July 26 is annually celebrated as 'Kargil Diwas' or Kargil Day. Some 200,000 Indian soldiers took part in the Kargil war, about 30,000 of them in the Kargil-Drass sector.

More than 500 Indian soldiers were killed in the two-month fighting.

The intruders, who had come for a long haul, came as close as 300 metres to a key highway connecting Srinagar with Leh and the border town of Kargil.

Said another officer: 'Many families are sure to leave the place with a heavy heart but they will have the satisfaction of knowing that the army has not forgotten their sons, brothers and husbands.'