New Delhi (PTI) He may be no more but for 16-year-old Rukhsana from a remote village in Kashmir, Kargil martyr Vijayant Thapar is still alive.

Rukhsana, now a student of standard nine in a school in Kupwara district of North Kashmir, fondly remembers this "messiah", who was awarded the Vir Chakra after the Kargil conflict, as a "tall man with whom she played on the school premises and who gave her handful of chocolates".

While braving the Pakistan army intruders at the icy heights of Knoll and Three-Pimples of Drass sub-sector in Kargil, the 22-year-old Captain Thapar had a virtual premonition about the ultimate fate and had penned down his last letter to his family members asking them to continue sending Rs 50 to a girl in Kupwara.

Captain Thapar, who was conferred captain's rank posthumously, had his first posting with 2-Rajputana Rifles and had met Rukhsana, a five-year-old girl in a school near an Army camp in Kupwara.

Captain Thapar in his last letter had written, "by the time you get this letter I will be observing you all from the sky enjoying the hospitality of apsaras (angels)...donate some money to orphanage and keep giving Rs 50 to Ruksana per month."

"All we want is to keep cherishing "Robin's" (Captain Thapar's nickname) memory and see Rukhsana growing up," recalls his father Colonel (retd) V.N. Thapar.

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