Martyr: A Soldier's Account(Atul Sharma) Martyr: A Soldier’s Account

I could feel the pellets piercing my skin and blood gushing out of the wounds created by their impact. Everywhere I looked I could only see Chinese soldiers advancing on us. They were hell bent on killing anyone who came into their way.

I saw my fellow soldier and friend Shing Shong being killed by a bullet put into his head by a tiny Chinese soldier at point blank range. The soldier was short and thin when compared to Shing Shang but he had an advantage over my friend, a gun that provided him the necessary courage to enjoy killing Shing Shang. Had it been a battle involving hands I am dead sure that Shing Shang would have emerged as the ultimate winner.

I fired a shot at the killer of Shing Shang. My shot hit his chest and blood came out in torrents from it. He fell down and was dragged to safety by his fellow soldiers. Now, I knew I would be the next one who would have to bear their wrath. All of them in sync started shooting at me. I knew my old rifle would stand no chance in front of their automatic guns. Still I kept on engaging them by hiding myself behind a big rock thus buying myself some time to keep death at bay.

The rock was rattling due to the volley of bullets being shot at me. I knew soon the rock would make way for a bullet to pierce my body. I looked here and there and could find only corpses of my fellow compatriots. None of them was alive to rescue me. I knew my end was imminent.

A hand grenade was propelled towards me and a few of its pellets struck me inflicting serious damage to my already blood spilling wounds. I knew my end was imminent.

My whole world, consisted of my widow mother, a teenage sister, and my seven months pregnant wife, started to dance around my eyes. The Chinese troops had by then started to march towards the rock, which had till now saved me from their deadly attack. I sneaked from a corner of the rock and as far as my hazy eyes could venture. I only saw mutilated dead bodies covered with blood.

My present plight was only due to my officer who chose this ground surrounded by mountains where we were easy prey for our Chinese predators. When we arrived here, the Chinese were still two to three days far from us. If our intelligence officer had any hindsight, he could have stationed us atop the hill thus reversing this position of ours. However, he was fool enough not to see what a low ranking soldier like me could see, our imminent death by stationing ourselves here.

Our officer had to pay the price for his mortal error as he was the first one to get a shot between his eyes as the Chinese arrived within hours of our being stationed here. This revealed failure of our intelligence agency. Or were they bought by them? No one knew.

I saw the Chinese surrounding me from all sides. All of them marched towards me so that I could run nowhere. I thought of killing myself, putting a bullet in my head thus putting an immediate end to my present agony. But Alas! There was no bullet left in my rifle to provide me an easy death.

The Chinese surrounded me. Their officer came forward and asked me to get up. I meekly stood up trying to hide the intense pain emerging from my wounds. Strangely, I felt no fear, as I knew my death was imminent. I started to chant prayer to God in my heart. The officer in stern voice asked me to reveal our plan.

“I am just a petty soldier, Sir. If you wanted the plan you should not have killed my officer,” I replied without any fear of backlash.

“Then you are of no use to us.”

“Yes Sir. And it would be nice of you to provide me death at the earliest so that I can rest in peace. I do not want to be a meek witness of your atrocities that will begin when you will capture my country Tibet and make its people your slave.”

The officer was furious but he said nothing. And he saw straight into the eyes of one of his soldiers. The soldier understood his officer’s command. The Chinese soldier pointed his gun against my chest.

As the soldier slowly pressed his finger against the trigger, the officer shouted, "Stop! Stop!" The soldier swiftly removed the gun from my chest.

“We have ample time. We cannot move until morning. There are still three hours left to dawn. Let us play a little with this wretched Tibetan until then.”

The soldier stood back. The officer took the gun and shot at one of my legs. Then without wait, he shot at the other. I fell down growling. Then he kicked at one of my wounds and I screamed so loudly as to make them deaf. All of them were laughing and extremely enjoying my plight. Tears started to roll from my eyes. I wanted to stop them but how could I? He pressed his leg tightly at one of my wounds. That was enough to make me mad with pain. I tried to get up and snatch his gun but he kicked into my abdomen. I leapt at his feet and begged him to kill me. He laughed and said not so soon.

I cried at my agony. The merciless Chinese officer had no mercy for a Tibetan. Then as the sun’s rays flecked my face. The officer indifferently and hurriedly put a shot between my eyes allowing me to meet my fellow soldiers and making me another martyr in the fight for Tibet.

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