CHANDIGARH: Close-quarter battles produce the strangest and, sometimes, the most humane of interactions between battling men.Known as a chain smoker and the veritable ‘Marlboro Man’ of his battalion, Maj Deep K Pathak had survived the ultra-stress and rigours of Siachen glacier virtually on cigarettes having fought weather, terrain, enemy and less food relying on timely and comforting drags.
When his battalion, the 12 JAK Light Infantry (LI), got inducted into the Batalik LOC sector of the Kargil war immediately after the Siachen tenure, Maj Pathak’s Charlie company was tasked to assault the Point 4812 Complex (15,700 feet) from the north. Running out of rations having been deployed at high-altitude for days, the worrisome fact for Maj Pathak, personally, was that he had finished his cigarettes!
