Kargil War: Where the Indian Army fought against all Odds
- In Military & Strategic Affairs
- 02:16 PM, Jul 31, 2016
- Venkatesh Kikkeri
KARGIL wouldn’t have been that famous a name but for the WAR that was fought between two nuclear armed neighbours. History’s judgement will go that way but the truth lies in the fact that Kargil and the War in 1999 will forever be associated.
Kargil war was Indian Armed Forces’ supreme battle till date, a battle to win back lost territory, a battle to bounce back after several initial but critical losses, a battle to prove to the world that Pakistan managed the entire intrusion with its regular army in the guise of terrorists, a battle against nature at approx 18000 feet being rugged and an inhospitable terrain and a battle without much of a preparation and planning.
The mood of the entire Nation then was why not cross the Line of Actual Control, why not bomb Karachi to smithereens, why not escalate the battle to reclaim Pakistan Occupied Kashmir etc. The Government of the day acted in a mature manner and the battle was contained within the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control, given the fact that the two neighbours were fighting a conventional battle barely over a year after they conducted a series of nuclear tests and any escalation would have been catastrophic.
May 1999 to end of July 1999, the two months of armed conflict with Pakistan over Kargil had a deep impact on every citizen of India. For, this was a war fought in the era of a media boom – print and more so television – where every frame of the war was captured on screen and in print. Each bullet fired, the booming artillery guns, every rocket launched, every laser missile fired, each single air sortie etc were brought directly to the drawing room.
Unlike the Gulf War of 1991 when there was a sole Doordarshan to telecast the news across India, 1999 had changed the scenario for the people. They had access to many news channels over the cable television and had every bit of information. Coverage of the war also taught many a lesson about the costs of war. People in their drawing rooms saw in front of them victory parades, injured soldiers, death, heroic sacrifices, grit and determination. While the army fought at Kargil people of India had their battles with sentiments to fight with.
Geographical locations like Point 4875, Point 5140, Point 4812 etc were now household names going like Kargil, Drass, Tiger Hills, Tololing, Mushkoh Valley, Batalik, Zozi La Pass, Three Pimples, Turtuk etc. People began to be associated with the peaks - which hitherto were snow wasteland but still an integral part of India – and the armed forces who were fighting to wrest back the occupied territory. What started as an armed intrusion by a few Pakistani intruders turned out to be an army of regulars in terrorist attire who had intruded deep inside Indian territory in the Kargil Sector months ago and setup camps, thereby occupying and annexing the Indian territory.
Here were our armed forces facing the toughest task of defeating the enemy at 18000 feet - which in reality was a two front war, one against the enemy and the other against the nature - but they still achieved a historic victory evicting the enemy and by humbling their political masters before the world.
While the Country stood victorious several chinks in the armour were exposed as far as external, internal and military intelligence, war preparedness and co-ordination within the military and between the military and the political establishment were concerned. The occupation of the Kargil heights was not noticed for close to 4 months. Evidence obtained on site proved the intruders occupied the heights during the end of January 19991. Officially it was reported that on May 3rd, 1999 local shepherds2 believed to be army informers spotted the intrusion & relayed the incident. It has also been proved through the personal diaries of the intruders that the then Pakistan army General Pervez Musharraf himself laid foot on the heights on February 7th, 19993. This was a monumental intelligence failure.
During the battle many a lives were lost owing to the absence of intelligence estimates on the strength of the intruders, their weaponry and the vantage point they were occupying. Shortage of Precision Guided Munitions, a key weapon to neutralise enemy positions in a contained air attack had a telling effect initially4. All these and many more cause and failures were addressed to by the Subrahmanyam Committee which looked into the Kargil crisis. Further Kargil war reinforced the fact that nuclear weapons do not insulate a country from conventional attacks by enemies.
Men in uniform like Lt. Saurabh Kalia, Capt. Vijayant Thapar, Capt. Vikram Batra, Lt. Manoj Kumar Pandey, Flt Lt. Nachiketa, Sqn Ldr. Ajay Ahuja to quote a few, became household names. The commoner’s perception of the men in uniform changed for the better and forever. While some of the martyr’s stories were gruesome it also aroused sentiments triggering a wave of unity across the Nation.
On the other side the war also went famous with its share of quotes like the one by a very young Capt. Vikram Batra, ‘yeh dil maange more’ after the recapture of Tiger Hills. However it was the letter of Capt. Vijayant Thapar which even now rings in a call of duty: “If you can, please come and see where the Indian Army fought for your tomorrow, never forget the sacrifice of these men”.
Hope that tomorrow is as bright and successful as it could be for this wonderful Nation of ours...
Salute the Indian Armed Forces!! JaiHind!!
Sources & References:
- Chapter Four, Kargil: The Inside Story by Harinder Baweja, Books Today
- Preface, Dateline Kargil: A Correspondent’s Nine-Week Account From the Battlefront by Gaurav C Sawant, Macmillan India Ltd
- Chapter Four, Kargil: The Inside Story by Harinder Baweja, Books Today
- Chapter 27, Dateline Kargil: A Correspondent’s Nine-Week Account From the Battlefront by Gaurav C Sawant, Macmillan India Ltd
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