Kargil, July 07: They braved shells to feed and shelter about 100 scribes during the Kargil conflict and now ten years later they continue to function with a smile and open arms waiting for the area to be thrown open to tourists.
`Hotel Siachen` and `De Zozilla` were the two hotels that catered to journalists from various media houses, who had thronged the otherwise little known Kargil for the coverage of the 1999 conflict.
And now a decade later, their staff still remembers the trauma and jubilation that they went through as news of either an Indian soldier being killed or another point being
recaptured from the clutches of the Pakistan`s army, poured in respectively.
"Earlier, I had thought of going to Srinagar but the reporters persuaded me in keeping the hotel open despite the shells which were landing in the nearby market (Lal Chowk)
where my hotel is located," Mohammed Sadiq, the owner of `Hotel Siachen` said.
Sadiq, 55, who ran the 23-room hotel when the conflict was as its peak and the town deserted because of heavy shelling from the enemy`s side, said what kept him going was
the fact that the journalists were taking risk and doing their job, and they would not have a place to stay if he shuts down the hotel.
Bureau Report
