Revisiting Kargil: How India crushed Musharraf’s bid to cut off Ladakh
In 1999, a hitherto unknown town of Kargil became the focal point of India’s attention. The ill-intended Pakistan army led by General Pervez Musharaf encroached erstwhile J&K’s Kargil, now in UT of Ladakh, to completely cut-off the region from the rest of India by severing the road link, National Highway-1A (now NH-1), from Srinagar. Musharraf’s grander design was to wrest control of the Siachen Glacier from India. As a brigade commander, Musharaf had suffered defeat at the hands of the Indian Army in 1987.By 1998, Musharaff had reached the top position in the Pakistan army and in a few months initiated incursion in the Dras, Kargil and Batalik sectors.By the third of May, the first signs of intrusions were reported by local shepherd, Tashi Namgyal, detected men wearing pathani attire. Namgyal immediately informed the Indian Army of what he had seen. Initially the army assumed that the men occupying the hilltop and ridges were terrorists.The army sent a patrol, led by Lt Saurabh Kalia, to investigate the sighting of Pakistani troops occupying Indian posts that both India and Pakistan used to evacuate during the harsh winter months, remember Dras valley is the second coldest inhabited place on the planet and the higher reaches of the area experience even more inclement weather.The Indian patrol of six men was captured by the Pakistani army after a firefight. The officer and the men were brutally tortured and killed by their Pakistani captors.
By this time, the army had built a strong picture of the extent and scale of the intrusion of the Pakistanis overlooking the highway that led to Leh and then on to the Siachen Glacier. With a much clearer picture of what lay ahead, the army mobilised the 8 Mountain Division to the area to counter the new threat. Within two months India had captured territory it had lost and the Pakistanis were forced to retreat.
