Proud of being the father of a martyr, yet unable to control his grief, Captain Anuj Nayyar's father, Mr. S. K. Nayyar, today hit out at the politicians and bureaucrats running the country. “He did not deserve to die in a ‘war-like’ situation. Our children have not been brought up to be killed like this. There is not such thing as ‘death-like’. It is either death or life. Similarly, there can be no ‘war-like’ situation, it is either war or peace,” Anuj's aunt said. “Why can't those who allowed the infiltrators to come so deep inside our country be punished?”

Today, when the body arrived in a coffin, the tears in the eyes of Meena Nayyar overflowed and her sobs rent the air. Clutching the photograph of Capt Anuj Nayyar to her chest, she tried hard to console an equally upset Timmy, Anuj's fiancee. The two had been engaged for over a year now and were planning to get married in September.

Another relative of Capt Nayyar said, “Our grief at the loss would not have been so much had there been a war. But the fact that he was killed in our own country by infiltrators who had entrenched themselves so deep inside the LoC hurts. Now that he is gone I miss him, miss him a lot. But I am proud that he did his duty. And did his duty very well.”

Captain Anuj Nayyar, of 17 JAT, was killed on Pimple 1 in the South West sector of Tiger Hills, on July 5. “All the six persons with him were killed,” said a jawan from the same unit who had come to Delhi with the bodies. Paying respects to the 35 martyrs, most of who are from the JAT regiment, was the Western Army Commander, Lieutenant General HBS Kala, who is also the Colonel of the Regiment.

Among the dead who were paid homage today are Captain Anuj Nayyar, Captain Jerry Premraj, L/Naik Balwan Singh, Naik Ram Sarup, Sep Satyavir Singh, Sep Sheesh Ram, Sep Varinder Kumar, Sep Karan Singh, Naik Ganesh Prasad, Sep Pramod Kumar, Sep Anil Kumar, Sep Dharamveer, Sep Jitendra Singh, Sep Rajindra Singh and five personnel from the Grenadiers. This morning, 16 bodies were paid homage. These include those of Grenadiers Riasat Ali, Zuber Ahmed, Hussain Ali Khan, Rizawan, Hassan Mohammad, Mohammad Ishaq Khan, L/Nk Ahmad Ali, Zakir Hussain, Abid Khan, CQMH Annuruddin, Hav Brij Bhushan Tiwari and Sep Pramod Kumar and Maj Sarvanan who was killed on May 29. Nation's second highest wartime gallentry award MAHA VIR CHAKRA was awarded to Captain Anuj Nair on 15th August 1999