He came home victorious, but inside a coffin. Malik, of 12 Mahar, fell to enemy bullets in the Drass sub-sector in Kargil on June 28 night. Malik's body was received at the Biju Patnaik Airport here yesterday with full military honours. Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang and several Cabinet members, besides many prominent leaders and legislators were present.

The body was later taken to his home in Khandiaghat village of Kendrapara district in a military van.

Malik (28) was dancing with joy when his company of 85 soldiers captured three posts, including a bunker, of Pakistani infiltrators at Helmit Point of Mushkoh valley in Drass. But, all of a sudden, a machine gun bullet hit him in the chest, killing him instantly.

He is the fifth soldier from Orissato be killed in Kargil. The other four were soldier Gopinath Moharana of Cuttack, Flight Engineer Raj Kishore Sahoo of Cuttack, Lance Naik Manas Ranjan Sahoo of Angul and Major Padmapani Acharya.

``When we reached Helmit Point and occupied three enemy posts in the middle of the night, our joy knew no bounds. But, suddenly, a volley of bullets from the enemy side killed five soldiers, including Malik,'' recalls Bhubani Sethy, a havildar with 12 Mahar and a close colleague of Malik. Sethy, who accompanied the body from Kargil, hails from the coastal town of Gopalpur in Ganjam district. Recounting war horrors, Sethy said he and Malik, besides 83 other soldiers of the Baramur company of Mahar Regiment, had dinner at 9 pm on June 28 following which they proceeded towards Helmit Point to capture enemy posts. The company reached the point at about 11 pm and started firing at the enemy, killing over 40 infiltrators. At about 1.30 am, the company captured three enemy posts, including a bunker.

``When we startedcounting the number of casualties, I saw Malik lying dead. Even in death, he was tightly holding the machine gun,'' Sethy recalls.Malik, who joined the Army in 1992, came in contact with Sethy when he was posted in Amritsar four years back and since then they had been in the same company.

Malik had received a letter from his wife just a day before he died. ``Malik was desperate to reply back. But the company was extremely busy planning to capture the enemy posts,'' Sethy says. He feels that Malik's death has caused him an irreparable loss, and particularly at a time when he needed somebody to boost his morale.