Kargil War

A mastindia site

In May 1999, India and Pakistan, in their most serious military engagement since 1971, again clashed in Kashmir. In the spring, as snows melted in the Kargil sector to the northeast of Srinagar, some 1000 or more infiltrators crossed the Line of Control from Pakistani-occupied Kashmir into the Indian side. Equipped for high-altitude warfare, with snowmobiles and mortars, and protected by Pakistani artillery fire from the other side of the border, they established positions at heights above 14,000 feet, overlooking the strategically vital road that connects Srinagar with Leh in Ladakh.
Caught unprepared by an intelligence failure to detect the intrusion as it occurred, India rapidly mounted a major attack to dislodge the infiltrators --launching air strikes against the militant's positions and responding in kind to Pakistani artillery across the Line of Control. In the following weeks, the war intensified with India's determination to dislodge the infiltrators and force their withdrawal. International concern deepened in fear that the conflict might expand to a wider war between India and Pakistan, both self-declared nuclear weapon powers. Although India and Pakistan had placed troops along their 1,875 mile border on high alert, India exercised restraint in not crossing the Line of Control, thus containing the fighting to the Kargil region within Indian Kashmir.

According to Western media and intelligence agency reports, these intruders were trained and concentrated at Gultari, Faranshat, Shaqma, Olthingthang, Marol and Kharmang in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), prior to being inducted across the LoC. These intruders, having acclimatised adequately, traversed the snow covered and glaciated ridges along the LoC and occupied certain dominating heights in Batalik, Kargil, Dras and Mushkoh Valley sectors, 5 to 6 kms inside the Indian territory.

Pakistan's military move into the Kargil sector exploited the element of surprise in warfare and proved to be a repetition of its earlier strategy against India. During the 1947-48 and 1965 Indo-Pakistani conflicts over Kashmir, Pakistan Army planners had employed unconventional warfare in the initial phases of the war prior to the "hot" war stage. In the first two conflicts, political relations had deteriorated between the two sides prior to the outbreak of hostilities and, to that extent, the onset of war may not have been such a surprise. However, this time round the major difference was that despite the cordial state of political relations between the two sides, Pakistan simultaneously initiated military moves against India.

Operation Vijay was the Indian Armed Forces retaliation to the Pakistani intruders who had crossed the Line of Control and had occupied Indian territory in the Kargil-Leh sector. With the Air Force and artillery providing fire cover, infantry platoons skilled in mountain warfare have scaled daunting heights averaging 18,000 ft to come within striking distance of the intruders perched on the strategic ridges. But as some brave Indian soldiers moved for the kill, they were mowed down by the intruder's attack. The death toll had reached 407 by July 14, 1999.

On July 14, India announced that Pakistani aggression and the intrusion in Kargil have been decisively turned back. The intruders--a majority of whom were almost surely Pakistani soldiers--had withdrawn, but India's success had come at a high cost. More than 400 Indian soldiers had been killed; upwards of 700 infiltrators were dead. As India mourned its fallen heroes, tensions remained.