By Shahid Shah 

Havildar Lalak Jan was born in the village Hundur of tehsil Yaseen, Ghizer in 1967. He completed his early education from Government Middle School for Boys Hundur. Since his childhood he possessed a strong martial instinct and to fulfill his desire in 1984 he joined Northern Light Infantry Regiment as a solider.

He completed his one-year training at Bunji successfully and was posted to 12 NLI (Northern Light Infantry) regiment in 1985. Lalak Jan was a soldier with smart military bearing and was picked up for training as part of special guards. Lalak Jan was included in the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 12 Division special guard due to his smart military bearing and disciplined conduct. He also represented his battalion in the Brigade Commando Platoon competition, where he secured first position. Lalak Jan was posted in Bunji NLI Regiment Training Centre as a weapon training instructor. He performed duty in the Regimental Centre Yadgar-e-Shuhada as the Special Guard Commander and remained Company Havildar Major of Jinnah Company. In December 1997 he was posted back to the unit and was appointed as Havildar Major of Alpha Company.

Havildar Lalak Jan was second-in-command of his post during the 1999 Kargil conflict along the Line of Control. Indian forces attacked his posts multiple times during the course of war. He was deployed ahead of his post to warn against the enemy as well as inflict casualties on the enemy. Lalak Jan along with his two other men successfully repulsed multiple Indian attacks with great valor and successfully inflicted heavy casualties on the Indians with his LMG (light machine gun). At around 5pm on July 5th the two men accompanying Lalak Jan Sepoy Bakhmal Shah and Lance Naik Bashir received shots from Indian sniper fire and embraced martyrdom. Despite losing his men Havildar Lalak Jan stood fast alone against the enemy’s advancement.

After a long battle he was short of ammunition therefore he went to the enemy’s dead soldiers and collected their weapons. By 6:30pm he received a bullet but refused to vacate his position. He was manning all the firing bays in order to deceive the enemy by painting a false picture of own manpower to the Indians. In the course, he received two more bullets but kept the Indians at bay for five consecutive days. After the miraculous arrival of reinforcement from the battalion headquarters under command of Captain Kashif Khalil and Captain Ahmad the post was again strengthened. He was asked by Captain Ahmed to go back to the base camp considering his condition but he refused and said he did not want to die on a hospital bed, but rather die in the battlefield.

There was a secret Indian bunker from which massive shelling was being carried out and it needed to be destroyed. Lalak Jan, despite receiving three bullets and with severe injuries, volunteered for the mission and successfully blew up the secret bunker killing 19 to 20 men and inflicting massive loss of ammunition to the enemy. During the mission Lalak Jan was spotted by the enemy and received heavy fire. Surrounded from all sides by Indian fire, Lalak Jan tried to resist and return fire. The effort was in vain and Lalak Jan embraced martyrdom when a number of bullets pierced through his chest. Later, Commanding officer of 12 NLI sent two commando forces to recover the body of Lalak Jan. Due to his unflinching courage and bravery of Havildar Lalak Jan he was awarded with the highest military award “Nishan-e-Haider”.

The enemy leadership lauding the defense of Lalak Jan’s Qadir post said; “There were no wounded and no prisoners. Nor did any man abandon his position. It has been the most gallant defense action fought to the last man last bullet”. The courage and valor displayed by Havildar Lalak Jan set precedents for the forthcoming generations and his gallantry action and supreme sacrifice would always be remembered in golden words.