The country is once again remembering the brave soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the motherland during the Kargil war. Today marks 25 years of Kargil Vijay Diwas, this is the day when the Indian Army displayed amazing courage and indomitable bravery and defeated Pakistan in the Kargil war. There is also an incident related to this war when India was ready to cross the Line of Control (LoC) and the then Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif had to appeal to US President Bill Clinton.
The then Prime Minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif was pretending to be unaware of this conflict for a long time, although he knew that the Pakistani army had made a failed attempt to capture Indian positions in Kargil with the help of infiltrators and soldiers. As soon as Pakistan got a befitting reply from India and had to face defeat, Sharif rushed to America in the middle of the war to seek help and save his power.
Sharif was surprised by Clinton’s stance
However, the then US President Bill Clinton refused to give them any help and said that Pakistan will have to withdraw its army from there. Because of this, President Clinton is known in history as the first US President who supported India against Pakistan. During the Kargil war, he insisted that Pakistan should withdraw from Kargil to its part of the Line of Control (LOC).
Also read: The story of the Kargil war… from the words of those peaks, where Indian heroes painted the ice glacier with blood
He rejected every argument put forward by Pakistan to continue occupying Kargil until the issue of Jammu and Kashmir was resolved. Moreover, he did not accept the condition suggested that he should agree to mediate between India and Pakistan.
This new stance of America surprised both India and Pakistan because Islamabad thought that America would support it as usual and India did not expect that America would decide the issue on the basis of merits. Sharif was surprised by this stand of Clinton. This was Pakistan’s diplomatic defeat in the Kargil war. In fact, Clinton did not take this decision without reason, the evidence that India had given to America at that time about the conspiracy to attack Kargil matched the American intelligence information.
There were preparations to cross the LOC!
During the Kargil war, India was also preparing to cross the Line of Actual Control (LoC). Barkha Dutt writes in her book ‘The Unquiet Land – Stories from India’s Fault Lines’ that during the 1999 Kargil war, the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had sent a ‘secret letter’ to the then US President Bill Clinton, in which he had made it clear that if the Pakistani intruders did not return from Indian territory, we would throw them out in some way or the other.
Dutt referred to an interview with former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra in which he said: “The possibility of crossing the Line of Control (LoC) was not ruled out, nor was the possibility of use of nuclear weapons.”
Also read: During Kargil, America had told Pakistan, ‘India is going crazy, back off’
Preparations were being made to open a new front of war
Dutt also writes that the Indian Army had a contingency plan for a ‘six-day war’ – deploying troops in such a way that the border separating India and Pakistan could be crossed in less than a week if necessary. The book reveals that the Indian Army Chief had clearly told the Prime Minister that if we do not regain the position we had in Kargil, I will have to attack somewhere else. He made it clear that a new war front could soon be opened in another part of the subcontinent – including crossing the border.
It is said that after persuading Prime Minister Vajpayee, India’s General V.P. Malik sent an army brigade from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the western border. Also, the Navy’s Eastern Fleet was moved from the Bay of Bengal to the Arabian Sea. Both India and Pakistan wanted the US to intervene, but on their terms. So when Clinton called Vajpayee and promised that the US was working on Pakistan to withdraw its troops from Indian territory, the Prime Minister kept quiet.
Musharraf was scolded by the American commander
The book states that two days later Clinton sent Anthony Zinni, Commander-in-Chief of the US Central Command, to Pakistan. Pakistan’s General Pervez Musharraf pressed for US mediation on Kashmir. Zinni bluntly told Musharraf, “My goal is Kargil, not Kashmir. If you do not back down, you will impose war and nuclear destruction on your own country.”
Pakistan had broken the agreement
Before 1999, there was an agreement between India and Pakistan that the soldiers of both the countries will not deploy their soldiers in those areas where there will be snow during winter. India followed this agreement but Pakistan captured these hills in winter through deceit. In this, they reached many important areas including Dras, Tiger Hill and Kargil. Pakistanis had made their inroads in a radius of about 134 km.
India’s Operation Vijay
After this, as soon as India came to know that there was infiltration inside the border, then the Pakistani army started Operation Vijay to drive away the intruders. The Kargil war was fought from 3 May 1999 to 26 July 1999. The Indian Army won on 26 July. Since then this date is celebrated as Kargil Vijay Diwas. During the Kargil war, India lost 527 of its soldiers in 3 months. 1363 soldiers were injured in this war.
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