(File) Representational image
If locals are to be believed, the intelligence failure that led to the Kargil war in the summer of 1999 may have been much bigger. And General Pervez Musharraf-led Pakistan Army may have begun preparations for the occupation of Indian territories even before the Lahore Declaration of February 21, 1999, was signed.
Locals in Drass told THE WEEK that the Pakistani troops in garb of ‘mujaheedins’ and other irregulars may have begun intruding in the summer of 1998 itself—a year before the conflict actually began. The locals spoke on the condition of anonymity.
This dispels the prevalent notion that the intruders set up bunkers—many cemented—in the higher reaches only in the early part of 1999 or when the winter was still on. The first detection of the intrusion was by a local yak herder on May 2, 1999, who reported it to the local Indian Army post.
There are several feet of snow even in Drass town up to April-May. Drass is located much below the Tololing ridge which comprises the high features that saw the fiercest of battles, including the pivotal ones for the occupation of Tiger Hills and the Tololing peak.
“If in Drass town there is so much snow, one can well imagine how much snow there is in the upper reaches maybe of about 20 feet or so. There is no question of digging and setting up bunkers in the winter months, it is simply not possible. Which means the Pakistanis may have set up the bunkers in the summer months of 1998,” said one of the locals.
The melting of snow begins in Drass town only from April-May onwards. Drass is said to be the second coldest inhabited place on earth.
“We know what we are talking about because we have climbed onto the high ridges during our younger days while tending sheep and know the terrain well,” another local said.
While the Indian intelligence agencies failed to detect the systematic intrusion and its scale, the bilateral and diplomatic climate of the day was also warming up between India and Pakistan as the then prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif had signed the Lahore Declaration on February 21, 1999, which would have established mutual confidence and trust between the two South Asian neighbours.
On May 28 this year, during a PML-N party meeting, Sharif had said in a frank admission that Pakistan had violated the 1999 Lahore Declaration. "On May 28, 1998, Pakistan carried out five nuclear tests. After that, Vajpayee Saheb came here and made an agreement with us. But we violated that agreement...it was our fault.”
How much Sharif knew about Operation Badr—the name chosen for the systematic intrusion over a wide area in the wider Kargil region—is a matter of debate.
The main aim of Operation Badr was to control the highway (NH 1) that would have cut off Ladakh from the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country.
