Kargil: Conflict Between Two Nuclear States

The summers of 1999 set the stage for a conflict between two nuclear states; India and Pakistan. Although, the love-hate relation between the two neighbors was not new to the world but what was new was that now these two states had acquired nuclear capabilities. The misadventure of Pakistan led to what people call a ‘limited war’ and India’s response in the form of Operation Vijay that included mobilization of 200,000 Indian troops, but because of the nature of the terrain, the scale of the subsequent fighting was mostly at the regimental or battalion level. The total number of Indian soldiers that were involved in the military operation on the Kargil-Drass sector was close to 30,000.

Pakistan had numerous motives which they wanted to fulfill. They had a desire to redeem themselves after the humiliating defeats in the 1965 and 1971 wars, India’s occupation of Siachen glacier, their desire to up the tempo of insurgency in Kashmir valley, and finally their desire to achieve political change in Kashmir by exploiting their newly acquired nuclear capability. But that was not to be and the outcome was yet another humiliation for the Pakistani leadership and a failure of Pakistan’s grand strategies.

Pakistan had wrong footed on a number of things. First and foremost they did not comprehend the quickness and the magnitude with which India would respond to this situation. The Indian Artillery fired over 250,000 shells, bombs and rockets during the conflict. Approximately, 5,000 Artillery shells, mortar bombs and rockets were fired daily from 300 guns, mortars and MBRLs. Such high rates of fire over long periods had not been witnessed anywhere in the world since the Second World War.

The first major ridgeline to fall was Tololing in the Drass sub-sector on June 13, 1999 which was captured after several weeks of bitter fighting. The attacks were preceded by sustained fire assaults from over one hundred Artillery guns, mortars and rocket launchers firing in concert. Thousands of shells, bombs and rocket warheads wrecked havoc and prevented the enemy from interfering with the assault. The 155 mm Bofors medium guns and 105 mm Indian field guns in the direct firing role destroyed all visible enemy sangars and forced the enemy to abandon several positions. The arcs of fire trailing behind the Bofors high explosive shells and the Grad rockets provided an awesome sight and instilled fear into the minds of Pakistani soldiers.

The capture of the Tololing complex paved the way for successive assaults to be launched on the Tiger Hill complex from several directions. Tiger Hill was re-captured on July 5, 1999 and Point 4875, another dominating feature to the west of Tiger Hill and jutting into Mashkoh Valley, was re-captured on July 7, 1999. Point 4875 has since been re-named “Gun Hill” in honour of the stupendous performance of the Gunners in the Drass and Mashkoh sub-sectors.