The Pakistan Army-backed infiltrators could have mistaken it for doomsday as there was no let-up in the lethal firepower of the Army and the hills reverberated all through the night with the sky lit up.

Clearance for the offensive came just before 6 p.m. The 155-mm howitzer guns roared and seconds later the entire artillery unleashed its arsenal. The infantry soldiers waited with bated breath.

``We are firing the Bofors guns at identified enemy gun positions and the smaller ones at the bunkers of the infiltrators,'' said a field commander. The guns boomed in unison -- one, two, three, eighteen, twenty. All the guns in the Drass sector were firing with a deafeningroar.

Initially, all of them fired at the same location from different angles. ``We are firing together at the gun positions and the bunkers. Today the enemy does not have one chance in a million to survive,'' said an artillery officer, his face red with excitement. The smell of cordite and dust filled the air.

And then all the guns started firing at different locations, all through the night. The shells, fired one after the other on a high trajectory, would go all the way up to the stars and come down on enemy territory with ferocity.

``Aaj to hamari Diwali hai (today is our Diwali),'' said a gunner during a brief lull. The morale of the Army was soaring with the increasing trajectory of the shells. They had something to celebrate after days of toil and sweat.

The display of fireworks was awesome. When the multi-barrel rocket launchers opened up, 40 rockets were fired with a loud whoosh, streaking the night sky and lighting up the entire area, as if in a phantasmagoria.

The 105-mm lightfield guns were already spewing fire, rising a few inches from the ground as they targeted the bunkers of the infiltrators and giving covering fire to the advancing infantry.

The Pakistani response was muted. A few shells landed from across the LoC harmlessly away on distant peaks. Their guns also targeted Baroo Hills in Kargil and Drass town.

Around midnight there was a lull in the firing. Perhaps, both sides had taken a break to eat. But just after 2.30 a.m., an officer working as an observation post (OP) under the stars, with only his legs inside a sleeping bag for protection at an altitude of 17,000 feet, noticed the enemy trying to send reinforcements. He asked for air bursts and heavier fire, and once again the guns began roaring sending out a thousand echoes.

``Our OP reported that the Pakistani soldiers were fleeing, leaving their injured behind, and then clearance was given for the movement of ground troops,'' an officer said. Eager to avenge the death of their colleagues, the troops hit thetrail. Slowly but steadily they advanced and after a bloody battle, physically occupied the Tuloling heights this morning. ``By tomorrow night we should be able to take Point 5140 and then the Drass road would be more or less safe,'' a field commander said.

Having done their job, the artillery guns fell silent at dawn. ``Dusk would bring another operation and soon the infiltrators would be completely neutralised,'' the officer promised.