The Indian Army on Thursday kicked off the landmark 25th Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations from a mountain top near this picturesque town in Ladakh, as the Pakistan Army, still smarting from its defeat in the 1999 war, looked on from a post at a height of 17,500 ft along the Line of Control (LoC), senior officers aware of the development said.
Pointing towards a two-humped feature called Point 5353 (its height in metres) — resembling the back of the Bactrian camel, domesticated versions of which can be found in some parts of Ladakh — sticking out of a towering ridge line to the north of Dras near Kargil, one of them said, “They are watching us. They must be reflecting on their defeat and how their commanders and country failed them, refusing to even accept the bodies of their soldiers.”
Point 5353 offers the Pakistan army a sweeping view of a stretch of the Srinagar-Leh highway, a critical supply line — and of the mountains to the south of National Highway 1, including the Lamochen top perched at 11,500 feet near Dras.
Lamochen is where the celebrations began in the presence of top serving and retired officers, Kargil war heroes and the families of those killed in action as the army recreated the scenes of various battles against the backdrop of the very mountains where they were fought.
{{/usCountry}}Lamochen is where the celebrations began in the presence of top serving and retired officers, Kargil war heroes and the families of those killed in action as the army recreated the scenes of various battles against the backdrop of the very mountains where they were fought.
{{/usCountry}}The top offers stunning panoramic views of the mountains ahead, studded with peaks where some of the bloodiest battles were fought during the Kargil war — and of the Pakistan army post, Point 5353, which is barely 3km from Lamochen as the crow flies.
The post has been somewhat controversial over the years in the context of why the Indian Army didn’t capture it. Top officers, who oversaw the Indian war effort then, said it was a needless controversy as the post was on the Pakistan side of LoC, and capturing it would have required crossing the de facto border, an option ruled out because of India’s self-imposed restraint.
“They know we are celebrating the 25th anniversary. Preparations were on for a while. The enemy post has an unhindered view of Lamochen and we know the men holding it are watching this ceremony,” said another officer. He pinpointed the enemy post, marked in red, on a map depicting the Kargil battlefields, including Point 4875, Tiger Hill, Three Pimples, Point 4700, Point 5140 and Tololing.
Every battle fought to take back the peaks from Pakistan army in the summer of 1999 was fierce, involved chilling close-quarters combat and cost the lives of young Indian soldiers. A total of 527 Indian soldiers were killed in action. There is no definitive account of Pakistan army casualties, but different estimates peg the number between a few hundred and a few thousand.
The 25th anniversary celebrations are also a reminder of the failure of Operation Badr, the code name for Pakistan’s Kargil operations, said a third officer, who was honoured with a wartime medal for his heroism. “I just want to say one thing to the Pakistan soldiers holding Point 5353 and watching us today. No matter how many times you try, the outcome will be the same. The only difference being you will get a bloody nose faster because the Indian Army is even more powerful now,” he said.
The military has transformed since the turn of the century, weeded out its vulnerabilities, and sharpened its readiness to take on its adversaries.
The army’s primary mission is to safeguard the sanctity of LoC, said Major General Sachin Malik, General Officer Commanding, 8 Mountain Division, which guards the Dras-Kargil-Batalik stretch. Malik is the son of General Ved Prakash Malik (retd), the then army chief.
“We won’t let an intrusion happen again as the lessons of the war have been learnt and the army is dominating LoC,” he said.
The hard lessons learnt from the war and the events that led to it resulted in the overhaul of India’s intelligence set-up, far-reaching military reforms, modernisation of the armed forces and vastly improved border management.
To be sure, the Indian Army holds heights on both sides of Point 5353, negating any advantage the enemy may have held, said a fourth officer.
“I think they must be weeping today looking back at their defeat and living under the constant fear of being dislodged from those heights too,” said Tiger Hill hero Honorary Captain Yogendra Singh Yadav, who was awarded the country’s highest wartime honour, the hallowed Param Vir Chakra.
All of 19 then, Yadav (then a grenadier) came into his own in what is perhaps the most well-known battle of the Kargil war. He was the only survivor of an attack that killed six of his comrades and riddled him with 15 bullets. Yadav’s solo counter-attack killed seven enemy soldiers.
For those left behind, Kargil will always be sacred ground.
Jaba Bhattacharya’s 24-year-old brother, Captain Kanad Bhattacharya, was killed in action on the northeastern ridge of Tiger Hill. He took several bullets on May 21 but led his men till life slowly oozed out of his body. His remains were found buried in snow only on July 15.
“At a personal level, I will never get over the loss. It will never happen. But when I look at the bigger picture...these young men staring death in the face but not losing sight of their mission. I refuse to cry. I can only bow down to their unbreakable spirit,” she said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Friday visit the imposing Kargil war memorial at Dras to pay tribute to the courage, resilience and sacrifice of the men who fought and bled in the war. When he enters this sacred ground, the first thing likely to catch his eye is the haunting beauty of Tiger Hill in the backdrop.