05 Jul 09 10 years of Kargil war
It’s the 10 anniversary of the Kargil war.
Let’s start by why this war was exactly held
What was Pakistan’s interest in Siachen?
Before we can answer this we need to go to Siachen.
What is Siachen?
The Siachen Glacier is located in the eastern Karakoram Range in the Himalaya Mountains at about 35°30N 77°00E / 35.5°N 77.0°E / 35.5; 77.0, just east of the Line of Control between India-Pakistan. India controls all of the Siachen Glacier itself, including all tributary glaciers.
So what is the big deal?
To answer this question we need to ask what is the Karakoram Highway
What is the Karakoram Highway?
The Karakoram Highway (KKH)is the highest paved international road in the world. It connects China and Pakistan across the Karakoram mountain range, through the Khunjerab Pass, at an altitude of 4,693 m/15,397 ft. as confirmed by both SRTM and multiple GPS readings. It connects China’s Xinjiang region with Pakistan’s Northern Areas.
Karakoram Highway
Click to enlarge the pic and see how strategically Siachen is placed to counter the entire highway
Now we come back to the question
What was Pakistan’s interest in Siachen?
India is strategically placed its army in Siachen which overlooks the Karakoram high way. Sitting at this position the Indians can target the entire high way and its traffic at will and at ease.
This is again important because every time India has a conflict with Pakistan …the first move made by Indians is a navel blockade. India stations an aircraft carrier outside Karachi port acting as a deterrent to all the merchant ships trying to enter Pakistan.
With no oil in Pakistan they surrender within a week or two.
But why do we want to target this highway?
This is the oil age ..Anyone who controls oil is the king. The first and the foremost ingredient needed to start and sustain a war is oil.
Pakistan can only last for week or two if it does not get additional supplies of oil from the world. So in case of a war an Indian battle ship is placed in the Arabian Sea to push back all the oil tankers coming into Karachi or Gwader.
Please read of a past naval blockade of Pakistan.Google Operation Talwar
Now china can supply oil (Theoretically) arms and ammunition from this route. So it is important for us to cover this point too.
Okay cool I got the point lets go ahead.
Just to give you a sense of time the Siachen conflict started in 1984 and the
Karakoram highway was built in 1986.
Now Pakistan will never feel safe with Indians watching them from the top of a mountain
A picture will give you a better understanding.
So what was the Pakistani plan?
One must appreciate the planning of the Pakistani’s..I do …they had a brilliant plan.
In winters there was an unsaid understanding that both of them(India and Pakistan) empty their camps and go back to their bases as it would get too cold for them
to hold ground. This was done for the past 20-30 years. India had nothing to suspect anything un usual and more over the India was making good progress with Pakistan in terms of PR with Vajpayee going to Pakistan and India Pakistan bus and stuff like that.
Pakistanis took advantage of this and occupied Indian posts in winter itself. They were well supplied and they had stayed there for over a couple of months and had managed to get some heavy military equipment and were well equipped…better equipped than the Indian Army
a. Modernizing the Services. The war in Kargil has effectively highlighted that besides bravery and raw courage our officers and jawans need to be better equipped both in respect of arms and equipment. Imagine a rag-tag band of militants were better equipped than the fourth largest army in the world — what can be more insulting or demoralizing!
Well it goes without saying that all this stuff was sponsored from china and it was in response to the then Defense minister George calling China India’s number 1 enemy.
China only wanted to reciprocate the same feeling to India but this time in a better way.
So what was Pakistan’s plan?
Pakistani’s had planed that while nawaz sherrif diverts attention of Indian politicians from the Kashmir front, the army will infiltrate the posts occupy them and make a strong hold.The Indians will not respond appropriately and will go crying to US.US will announce a seize fire and Pakistan get hold of the strategic position and will co ordinate an attack at the siachen glacier with an attack at NH 1A.This will stop crucial equipment from reaching siachen and we will loose siachen to Pakistan and eventually the karakoram highway.
So where did it go wrong ?
1.The Indian response.The then Indian defense minister saw this and gave the army,navy and the air force a free hand to do what ever they can from the Indian side of Kashmir and get the intruders out.
The army brought bofors guns to hit the enemy bunkers accurately.
The Airforce was used to target the enemy bunkers where bofors could not be used.This was the first time Laser guided bombs were used in the war.
You can see the footage of the bombs that were dropped on the bunkers of Tiger hill .
2.Indians response was so great that the Pakistani planning went wrong. More over Kargil war was also open to the media. Watch video.
Now with the support of the international community getting low Pakistanis could not get the required Cease fire from US. Instead US asked them to vacant their position and refused to get dragged into this war.
With time running short and Indians navy blocking the ports of Karachi ,nawaz sherrif had no choice but to order a withdrawal of his troops. But Musharraf was not the one who wanted to withdraw. He wanted to make it into a war rather than a battle. Nawaz in the mean while thought of blaming Musharraf for the whole scenario as it would be more convenient for him. There was a falling out between them and it is at this moment that Nawaz Sherrif ordered the killing of Musharaff.
Musharraf survived the assassination and took over Pakistan in a Military coup.
So all in all ..The plan was great execution was nice but the sustainability was bad.
It’s been 10 years what has been the change now?
Well the Indian posts are manned for 24 hours a day and 365 days a week ,they have gone high tech and they are never left. Hot water, TV, Free telephone fridge ,heater, cooker.
Each and every bunker is self sustained with enough ration to last a year.helicopters are kept at disposal
The Indian army provides each jawan with some of the best winter clothing available in the world, snow boots and anti-glare goggles. Pucca barracks have been built and are heated using a kerosene “sikri” that has an exhaust system. The toilets are also heated using the same technique. Dehydrated food is available at all posts during winter. The power supply through generators is regulated to conserve fuel.
The best part for the jawans is that they can talk to their wives, children and parents on a daily basis. At places where the BSNL network is not available, satellite phones have been provided. Each post has a TV and DTH connection. The leader of the group regulates television viewing.
A doctor is attached with each unit, while each post has a jawan who has been trained in nursing. There is also the facility to land a chopper to evacuate anyone who is not feeling well.
“The newly-built defences are fully covered from both sides with two thick parallel-running stone walls, thick overhead protection which can bear any kind of fire from the enemy,” the officer said.
The idea for building these new defences came up after the army realised that the stone walls at posts facing the enemy directly and at close distances were not effective in providing shelter against shells fired in the ‘air-burst’ mode as the splinters were causing damage to the troops.
“Now even artillery shells fired in the air-burst mode would prove to be ineffective as our soldiers would be fully covered from all sides,” the officer said.
Now with all this in place there can be no chance of another mis adventure from Pakistan at least on this front.
Watch this video of how Pakistani army surrendered and accepts in soldiers bodies
And almost then entire Indo Pak border has been fenced with thermal imagery installed to monitor the movement of people both above and below ground and hence forth you do not see any more militant activities in Srinagar and Kashmir.
Watch the video of the national anthem at Siachen
Please leave a comment if you liked the post and vote for by giving a star rating in the stars in the side bar.
Most Viewed Posts on this blog
December 13, 2008 -- The Islamic N bomb (0)
June 28, 2009 -- 26/11 dossier download (2)
May 28, 2009 -- AWACS..India gets one (2)
November 30, 2008 -- Checkmate Pakistan (0)
October 12, 2008 -- Farkhor Air Base Part 3 (0)
Reader's Comments
Leave a Comment
dude!
what a post!
well researched and nicely spelt out.. very interesting read.
specially the fact that yr post generated interest in something that happened 10 years back and is not likely to happen again.. itself shows how wonderful this article was
keep it up
luv u
[...] This post was Twitted by Tejaswy [...]
Very good article. Thanks for sending me the notification. Will check this more often to see what you have to say about various things.
Have a good one!
Arti
I dont have a very good idea about glaciers and their impact on me. Though I like to know the deployment of laser guided bombings, and I wish I could do some too. Nice read, moreover am surprised who does the research!
great job done….
must hav researched a lot…..
Dude i think posts like this one requires a lot of r&d. As majorly u hv gt all the facts right except few. Anyways, really well attempted stuff.
A bit too much theoretical……….!!!! bt nice info…..!!!!!!
As always informative and a indepth post teja !!
hope some pakistanis read this and never dare to turn towards India
Great article !
Well done, Tejaswy!
However a recent Breaking News item said Congress wanted to get away from Kargil day celebration or even acknowledging the Kargil war heroes saying the war was not theirs (Congress’) or India, but an ego trip for BJP. (http://indiatoday.intoday.in/index.php?option=com_magazine&opt=section§ionid=86&ptype=video&videoid=51885&secid=42)
This is a debasing remark at its worst. We would definitely expect more from a ruling party. Giving such a political angle to Kargil war cannot be tolerated. Do we ever say that China wars reflected Nehru’s weakness to deal strongly with neighbors, or Bangladesh war was none of our business but Indira’s own sadism!! No we don’t. We own it up, suck it up, and live with it.
[...] much to the thread but Here is why siachen is so important to Pakistanis Indians and the Chinese. 10 years of Kargil war | Tejaswy Found this on twitter and this on has to be my favorite after the picture of signing of submission [...]
Hope whatever written here is true and that you are a responsible writer.
Well you are free to express if you think other wise….the conclusion i draw is from the reports I read and the maps I saw.
If you think not then please post some links and proof
The link that claims defence minister calling china as no.1 enemy is posted on march 2008 and kargil was in 1999. Seems like some mismatch
@chetan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/1223625.stm
here this link from BBC will rest your questions
read
“Rift with china”
You have mixed everything into one. Analysts wouldn’t disagree with your geographical exigencies of the three neighbors in the region described above but your assumption that the civil administration of Nawaz Sharief was a complicit in planning Kargil intrusion is wrong most probably. Do not forget that the Paki army has its own designs to stay alive and kicking in that country by subjugating the civil administration. To my understanding, it is quite apparent that the civil society of Pakistan, as represented by PPP or PML(N) has been very much desirous of building people to people contact between the two countries to the discomfiture of Paki army. Currently, even the majority of armymen are reconsidering their earlier habit of poking nose into the popular governments but unfortunately their ISI has by now assumed a size of an uncontrollable monster. Even the U.S. Chief of staff has today only admitted the rogue character of this agency.
Coming back to the Kargil War, it is highly likely that Musharraf planned and organized the whole thing to thwart Vajpayee-Nawaz talks. These days Musharraf is going around the town and trying to convince pakis that his Kargil overture had brought Indians to the talking table. His reason of saying this implies that Nawaz Sharief may rake up the Kargil issue through courts and try to prove that Musharraf bypassed the constitution by not consulting the civil authorities.
It would be worth tracking closely the current case being pursued against Musharraf in Pak supreme court.
Liberal,
There are many conflicting reports which say that Nawaz and Musharaf were in this together.Mushraff him self said it in an interview that he (Nawaz) was kept in the loop)
And I too agree with them as it is a bit hard to think that all this was done with out the knowledge of political parties and the govt.
But then that cannot be ruled out either.
I would like to take the benefit of the doubt and I would say that it was not the army alone acting ..it was also GOP (Govt of Pakistan) acting.
I agree with your point that Army has a mind of it own in Pakistan.
Please read “Allah Army and America”
http://www.tejaswy.com/2009/01/08/allah-army-and-america/
A very nicely researched article indeed
Way to go!
Landed here through twitter.
A very well-researched post. Good job
A very well researched article i must say. Hopefully more people will come across this article and our martyrs will get their due share of remembrance and respect.
Great work…
hi..
its a proud moment for all of us.. it makes me think why our soldiers sacrificed their time and life. They could have been with their family, friends… and many of them lost forever… I could never understand it… but now I feel that, our soldiers have a great passion to our nation.. lets all start to respect the jawans, who instead of seeing TV serials at home… have gone all the way to fight against the infiltrators in heights unimaginable to us…
with a wet eye..
and bright heart..
full of respect to our own soldiers
thank you all
atleast some indians got to really “know” something than just doin the “talking”. had we all tried to do the same in all the cases including politics, our plight would have been a great deal better
Nice article…never saw that video before..I doubt the enemy would have accorded our fallen soldiers those honours. Shows how classy we are. I want peace, but only so that we don’t have to lose any more of our brave men. I cannot bring myself to respect the scum across our border. Jai Hind.
HI
Xclnt post tejaswy, never saw so well researched post in my blogging life not even on news channels
Your article brought tears to my eyes and for them who had sacrificed their lives to protect our nation. The writeup is a through researched (as it seems) and wish you good luck so that you keep up the good work!
Jai Hind!
awesome yaar veru informative even me from a army background dint know all this,hats off to u boss
I salute the courage of the soldiers, who stood up against the malicious minds of the one’s who desire nothing but destruction.
Each & every soldier, A man of honor, the highest creation of God, has to go through this just to defend & secure the freedom for all… I feel torn apart from within…knowing a man is standing against a man …& that too for land…the same land…in which each man has to melt into.
May great wrath fall upon those who use the words politics, & rules of war as mere excuse to kill millions…to achieve their own supremacy…while these brave soldiers face death upfront, as the politicians who make decisions are safely stuck to their beloved chairs…
My heart reaches out towards each soldier & their families…& it’s not just about India….
India has always been on the defense…always been intruded by some civilization or the other for centuries…& even today it stands free…
Why because…the spirit of the humans here is of Love, Peace & to be free….& I believe strongly, so should each Human believe in live & let live…Rather than wasting their lives away on destructing their own & others…
I bow down with humility & tears to all who stood against the one’s who wanted to destroy freedom. To all the soldiers all over the world… who fight…
And am thankful to the one who did bring this heart rendering information to our notice.
Peace be to all..
great work dude, keep going…..
Hearty Salute to all our Brave Jawans………
Jai Hind
wow…………. great…….. there r so many things behind a war………… a really great post
Lets Salute to our brave jawans..
This is a gr8 article backed by nice graphical illustration. Thanks for such a nice and detailed report.
Jai Hind………