Defense Update

The country will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Kargil Vijay Diwas today. On this day in 1999, the Kargil War, also known as the Kargil conflict, formally came to an end, with Indian soldiers successfully recapturing mountain heights that had been seized by Pakistani intruders.

The Kargil War was the last time India and Pakistan came to a full-blown armed conflict. The Kargil War was also the first time India and Pakistan got into an armed conflict after becoming nuclear powers.

The Kargil War was prompted by the Pakistan Army intruding into India across the Line of Control and capturing strategic mountain peaks. The intrusion was first detected in May 1999, but at that time it was assumed that the intruders were militants or terrorists and not regular Pakistan Army troops.

Over the next few weeks, as Indian soldiers fought valiant battles to reclaim the heights of Kargil, it became apparent that it was actually the Pakistan Army that had intruded across the Line of Control.

In response, India launched a military and diplomatic blitz, pushing the Pakistani intruders off the captured heights and isolating Islamabad on a global level.

India recaptured all the peaks by July 26, 1999, bringing the Kargil conflict to an end.

More than 500 Indian soldiers died in the Kargil War.

KARGIL WAR: ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW

1. In the first week of May, local shepherds in Kargil noticed unusual movements near the mountains there. The shepherds passed on the information to the Indian Army, which sent patrols to find out more. The patrols discovered the presence of infiltrators who had occupied the strategic heights.

2. In the initial fog of the conflict and with not much intelligence available, it was assumed that the infiltrators were militants or terrorists belonging to jihadi outfits operating out of Pakistan. It was only after Indian soldiers recovered identification tags and diaries from the bodies of slain intruders that realisation hit home: The intruders were actually jawans and officers of the Pakistan Army.

3. The Pakistan Army denied being involved in the Kargil intrusion, going as far as to reject the bodies of its slain jawans and officers. Some of the soldiers were later buried by Indian troops in unmarked graves near the sites that had witnessed intense fighting between Indian and Pakistani forces.

4. At the peak of the Kargil conflict, a bombshell tape nailed the Pakistan Army's lies. The tape was of a phone call between then Pakistan Army chief General Pervez Musharraf and one of his senior generals. The phone call was intercepted by India's external intelligence agency, the Research & Analysis Wing. India made the tape of the phone call, which had the two Pakistani generals talking about the Kargil War, public to prove the Pakistan Army's direct involvement in the conflict.

5. Meanwhile, on the battlefields of Kargil, the Indian Army slowly ramped up pressure. The army sent teams after teams to scale mountains and recapture the peaks. The army teams were supported by the Bofors field guns, which bombarded the peaks. The Kargil War witnessed intense fighting with Indian and Pakistani troops often engaging in close-quarter, hand-to-hand combat.

6. The turning point of the Kargil War was the recapture of the Tololing peak. The Tololing peak overlooked the Srinagar-Kargil-Leh highway and so, gave the Pakistani intruders an opportunity to cut the strategic highway off. The Tololing peak was recaptured by Indian soldiers on June 13, 1999.

7. While the Kargil War was primarily an army operation, the other two arms of the military -- the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy -- played important, supporting roles. The India Air Force was involved in an offensive capacity, with its pilots flying at daring heights to bomb enemy positions. The air force, however, did not cross the Line of Control, as was ordered by the political establishment back in Delhi. Meanwhile, the Indian Navy launched aggressive patrols in the Arabian Sea and made plans to blockade Pakistani ports. So effective were the Indian Navy's plans that then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif later revealed Pakistan would have been left with just six days' worth of fuel in the event of a full-scale war.

8. Apart from the military offensive, India also launched a diplomatic blitz to isolate Pakistan on an international level. Islamabad approached the West and China in order to get India to halt its offensive. However, Islamabad did not receive much support, with most countries calling on Pakistan to withdraw its troops from the conflict zone.

9. The diplomatic quagmire was resolved in early July with a forceful United States breathing down Pakistan's back and getting it to make a promise to withdraw from the conflict zone. Then Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif visited the US in early July to meet then US President Bill Clinton, who had received information that Pakistan may be preparing its nuclear weapons for possible use. Hell-bent on resolving the crisis, Clinton got Sharif to sign a statement saying that Pakistan would unconditionally withdraw its troops from the Kargil conflict zone.

10. The Kargil conflict continued for the next couple of weeks as Indian troops started occupying heights cleared by the Pakistani intruders. Some Pakistani infiltrators remained in certain locations. They were ousted by force. By July 26, all the heights and peaks were recaptured, and the Kargil War formally came to an end.

Footnote: The Kargil War was not actually a "war". India never declared an emergency and never classified it as a war. At the height of the conflict, then PM Atal Bihari Vajayee said the situation in Kargil was "war-like". But, Kargil always remained a "limited conflict", which is why the Indian military was ordered not to cross the Line of Control and why the situation along the International Border in Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat remained peaceful.

(This story has not been edited by defupdateindia staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Source Link: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/kargil-vijay-diwas-recounting-the-peak-of-indian-military-victory-20-years-ago-1573689-2019-07-26