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!

Source

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.

Source

“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.

Source

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

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Tags: India, Kargil, Pakistan, War