NEW DELHI, June 7: An Indian soldier, who served in the Siachen Glacier, testified before an army court on Monday that he had demolished a fake "enemy target" at the behest of a senior officer in August last year and later posed in a video film as an enemy casualty.

The revelations came as India's new government prepared to challenge former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's administration with evidence of serious lapses in the Kargil conflict of 1999, which he had claimed as a victory.

Rifleman Shyam Bahadur Thapa was quoted by Indian reports as saying that his company commander Major Surinder Singh made everybody involved in the operation swear before Lord Hanuman not to reveal the truth to anyone.

"Earlier on August 20 the officer called me and asked me if I could operate a video camera. When I said I did not know how to operate a camera, Major Singh taught me its operation," he was quoted as saying.

When the apparently fake encounter was being enacted, Major Singh, according to Rifleman Thapa, asked him to go near the rubble of the "enemy target" and lie there along the wall.

"He asked me to remove my jacket and cap before going to the demolished fake target and lie there. But when I started moving with my jacket and cap on, Major Singh abused me in foul language," Thapa said.

"I was also asked by Major Singh to report a technical snag in the first two shots and fire with a rocket launcher to demolish the fake target," he said. "The drama was re-enacted on September 21," Thapa said.

Rifleman Shyam Bahadur Thapa is the fourth soldier to tell the court that army faked encounters in Siachen. Earlier JCO Phatte Bahadur Thapa, Havaldar Neer Bahadur Ale and Nayak Bhuwan Bahadur Thapa made similar admissions.

The court is recording summary evidence as a follow up to a Court of Inquiry which held Col K D Singh and Maj R Lamba responsible for administrative lapses and recommended disciplinary action against Maj Surinder Singh for making exaggerated claims about strikes on enemy targets, euphemism for Pakistani troops.

The new Congress party government was reported on Monday to be planning further revelations on another battlefield - the Kargil conflict. The government was quoted as suggesting that Mr Vajpayee's government had unncessarily delayed ordering air strikes in the Kargil conflict to evict Pakistanis from the heights.

An Indian TV documentary meanwhile quoted a senior army officier as saying that a certain Kagil peak known as Point 5353 which he said belonged to India was still with Pakistan. The peak overlooked the strategic highway to Leh, in Ladakh. India, the officer said, had to include this issue in its talks with Pakistan.