kargil war

This story begins on 20^th February 1999 when the then Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee visited Pakistan with the hands of friendship with the neighboring nation Pakistan. At that time Mr. Nawaz Sharif was Pakistan’s president. He accepted the proposal of friendship and friendly relations started to grow between these two nations like a young plant. But India did not know at that time the cruel motives of Pakistan. Actually Pakistan at that time was playing hoax. They were preparing to capture Kashmir. At that time there was a treaty between the two countries.  According to the treaty the armies of the two countries will leave the LOC of the region of drass sector and batalik sector, which includes the kargil district, from 15^th September to 15^th April due to cold climate. But Pakistan cheated India by sending troops to cross LOC and capture the Indian posts. The main motive of Pakistan behind this was to capture those features from which they could control N.H 1 A that links Leh and Srinagar. Actually they want to cut off Leh region from the rest part of the Kashmir. Their plan was perfect to capture leh but thanks to that shepherd boy who accidentally reached to the hills in search of his sheep and saw a few infiltrators. He then immediately informed about this incident to the near by army camp. By the second week of May, one of the Indian patrol team led by Capt. Saurabh Kalia, who acted on the complain of the local shepherd in the Batalik sector, and this  led to the exposure of the infiltration.

                        Initially, with little knowledge of the nature or extent of the encroachment, the Indian troops in the area assumed that the infiltrators were jihadis and claimed that they would evict them within a few days. Subsequent discovery of infiltration elsewhere along the LOC, and the difference in tactics employed by the infiltrators, caused the Indian army to realize that the plan of attack was on a much bigger scale. The total area seized is between 130 km² and 200 km²; Musharraf, however, stated that an area of 500 square miles (1,300 km²) of Indian territory was occupied.

                      Till now Indian army was thinking that they were terrorists but when they came to know that they were having artillery support along with reinforcement it was clear that they were Pakistani soldiers. But Pakistan did not accept this. The Indian army then started preparing for the battle. But the problem for the Indian army was the high mountains on which they had no experience to fight. So the task was given to Indian Air Force. There was a strict instruction to the IAF not to cross LOC even in the air. The Indian Air Force launched Operation Safad Sagar in support of the mobilization of Indian land forces, but its effectiveness during the war was limited by the high altitude and weather conditions.On May 27,1999 the IAF lost a MiG-27 stike aircraft due to engine failure and a MiG-21 fighter which was shot down by Pakistan, Initially Pakistan said it shot down both jets after they crossed into its territory and one Mi-8 Helicopter.

                   The Indian army has again asked to take control of the situation that responded with Operation Vijay, a mobilisation of 200,000 Indian troops. The total number of Indian soldiers who were involved in the military operation on the Kargil-Drass sector was  close to 30,000. The terrain of Kashmir is mountainous and at high altitudes; even the best roads, such as National Highway No. 1 (NH 1) from Leh to Srinagar, has only two lanes. The rough terrain and narrow roads slowed traffic, and the high altitude was also a problem for the Indian army. From their observation posts, the Pakistani forces had a clear line-of-sight for artillery fire on NH 1A, causing heavy casualties on the Indians. This was a serious problem for the Indian Army as the highway was its main  supply route. The infiltrators, apart from being equipped with small arms and grenade launchers, were also armed with artillery and anti-aircraft guns. 

                 The initial Indian attacks were aimed at controlling the hills overlooking NH 1A. The Indian Army's first priority was to recapture peaks that were in the immediate vicinity of NH 1A.These peaks were kukarthan sector, pimple complex ,point 5353, point 4590,point 4875, tiger hill,rocky nock,jughbar, khallubar and tololing complex in drass. Some of the peaks that was of vital strategic importance to the Pakistani defensive troops were Point 4590 and Point 5353. While 4590 was the nearest point that had a view of NH 1A , point 5353 was the highest feature in the Drass sector, allowing the Pakistani troops to observe NH 1A. Due to steep mountains and due to presence of pakistani troops on the hill tops it was very dangerous for the Indian army to attack in the daylight . So all the advances had to be made under the cover of darkness but during the night the temperature was low as −11 °C to −15 °C (12 °F to 5 °F) . The army batallions involved in this war were 13 JAK Rifles, 1/11 GURKHA Regiment, 17 JAT Rifles, 18 Grenadiers and 2 RAJPUTANA Rifles. In the earlier attacks kukarthan sector and jughbar were captured by 1/11 Gurkha regiment , rocky nock and point 5353 were captured by 13 JAK Rifles,point 4590 was captured by 17 JAT and tololing complex was captured by 2 RAJPUTANA Rifles. The recapture of Point 4590 by Indian troops on June 14 was significant, but Indian Army suffers the most casualties in a single battle during the conflict. Though most of the posts in the vicinity of the highway were cleared by mid-June. Once India regained control of the hills overlooking NH 1A, the Indian Army turned to drive  the invading force back across the Line of Control. As the operation was fully underway, about 250 artillery guns were brought in to clear the infiltrators and to capture the features. The Bofors  played a vital role. However, its success was limited  due to the lack of space to fire from the Bofors gun. The Indian army made plan for the final assault. In the final assault  4 batallions were selected to capture 4 features.

The task to capture khallubar,point 4875, tiger hill and pimple complex were given to 1/11 Gurkha Regiment, 13 JAK Rifles, 18 Grenadiers and 17 JAT Rifles respectively. But in this final assault the Indian army had to suffer many casualities. The army lost his great officers and soldiers. Some of the posts put up a stiff resistance, including Tiger Hill (Point 5140) that were captured only later in the war.

                      On July 4,1999 Pakistan’s President  Mr. Nawaz Sharif agreed to withdraw Pakistani troops, most of the fighting   came to a gradual halt, but some Pakistani forces remained in position on the Indian side of the LOC. The Indian army launched its final attack in the last week of July; as soon as the Drass subsector had been cleared of  Pakistani forces, and the fighting ended on July 26. The day has since been marked as Kargil Vijay Diwas (Kargil Victory Day) in India. By the end of the war, India had resumed control of all territory south and east of the Line of Control, as was established in July 1972 as per the Shimla agreement. In this war, casualties for both sides were heavy. In the Indian side 4000 soldiers were killed and 1363 were wounded. Whereas in the Pakistani side  According to Indian estimates 1,042 Pakistani soldiers were killed and more than 665 were wounded. Five of the Indian soldiers were honoured with  gallantary  awards(PARAM VIR CHAKRA )Posthumously for their act of bravery during the war.  They are Capt. Vikram Batra of 13 JAK Rifles,  Lt. Manoj Kumar Pandey of 1/11 Gurkha Regiment,  Grenadier Yogendra Singh Yadav, 18 Grenadier and Rifleman Sanjay Kumar, 13 JAK Rifles. Capt. Anuj Nayyar, 17 JAT Rifles, was honoured with MAHA VIR CHAKRA, Posthumously.