Jai! Jai! Operation Vijay!!!
By Prabhjot Singh

THE official cessation of military operations on notwithstanding, the war continues unabated in Kargil, the biggest district of Jammu and Kashmir, which was once acknowledged for its serenity and peaceful environs. It is 204 km from Srinagar in the west and 234 km from Leh in the east and is the second largest urban centre of Ladakh. It has the second lowest population density — five persons per square km — and has only two tehsils —Kargil and Zanskar — and seven blocks — Dras, Kargil, Sankoo, Zanskar, Tai-Suru, Shargol and Shakar-Chiktan — besides 129 villages with two uninhabitated ones — Haripore and Batokul, both in Dras. The estimated population of the district, according to the 1991 census, was 81,000, which increased to 91,670 in 1995-96. The majority of the population is Muslim, followed by Buddhists in Zanskar tehsil and Shargol block. A few families of Hindus and Sikhs also live there.

In fact, Sikhs have a close historic connection with the Ladakh region in general, and with Kargil in particular. The founder of Sikhism, Guru Nanak Dev, had made a halt at Kargil, during one of his "Udasis" The place where Guru Nanak Dev stayed has the historic Gurdwara Charan Kamal now. Legend has it that on his way back from Leh — which has Gurdwara Pathar Sahib — Guru Nanak made a halt at Kargil on his way to Punjab via Srinagar in the early 16th century. It was in 1978 that the first Sikh Light Infantry took upon itself the task of constructing a full-fledged building for this gurdwara. The task was ultimately accomplished by another Sikh unit in 1983.

Besides this historic temple, Kargil town has another gurdwara around which live all the five Sikh families. The oldest of these has been of Punjabi poet Rattan Singh Rattan, whose grandfather had migrated to Kargil from Sargodha district, now in Pakistan, in the 19th century. One of his sons, Giani Avtar Singh, was born and brought up in Kargil, and continues to live there. He is into general merchandise business. His younger brother Gurcharan Singh, has retired as a senior functionary of the Jammu & Kashmir State Road Transport Corporation. One of his sons, Dr Davinder Singh, is an allopath, posted as Medical Officer in Kargil.

"Even when the shelling from across the Line of Control (LoC) was at its peak and most of the people had left the town, none of Sikh families movedout. We stayed back. We have a good bunker in the basement of our gurdwara. When shelling is intense, we all move to this bunker", adds Dr Davinder Singh.

The only road link Kargil has with the rest of the state is the Srinagar-Leh highway, which passes through the Zoji La Pass that remains snow-bound for about seven months in a year. This prolonged winter has brought another distinction to this district. Dras, a major town on the Srinagar-Leh highway, is perhaps the second coldest inhabited place in the world after Siberia where temperature dips below even -50°C.

Kargil has one of the oldest civilisations as most of the original inhabitants are from Dards and Baltis tribes. Baltis are believed to be descendants of Sakas, a Central Asian race. At present, it has a composite culture of Balti, Ladakhi, Purki, Dardi, Zanskari and Shina.

According to historians, the town gained prominence between the 14th and 16th centuries. One of its parts, Baltistan, was called Purik. Its Sultan had set up his kingdom at Karpokhar in the Suru valley. He brought the surrounding areas, including Zanskar, Pashkum and Sodh, under his control. Gashoo Thatha Khan, Boti Khan, Abdal Khan, Amrodh Choo, Tsering Malik, Niathi Stan, Kunchok Sherab Stan and Thi Sultan have been important people who have shaped the history of this ancient town.

History reveals that no king ever made Kargil his capital. Though there is no mention of Kargil in ancient history, it is generally believed that the town got its name from the combination of two words — ‘khar’ which means ‘stop’ and rkil meaning the ‘kingdom in between’. Other believe that it came from gar and khil. Gar means ‘coming from any place’ and khil means ‘stop’. It is equidistant from Skardoo, Srinagar, Leh and Zanskar.

History says that General Zorawar Singh, Commander of the Dogra army, invaded Ladakh. At that time Tsespal Namgyail was the king. The General came to the Suru valley through Warwan Pass where he encountered Ladakhi forces at Langkarchey, 35 km from Kargil, under the command of General Murup Nangail. In a fierce battle, Dogras emerged victorious and crushed reinforcements under General Banka Pa at Mulbakh. The General constructed a fort near the Suru river. The Dogras combined the kingdoms of Baltistan, Purik, Zanskar and Ladakh.

Historically, Kargil has been a quiet town and it once served as an important trade and transit centre in the Pan-Asian trade network. Numerous caravans carrying exotic merchandise comprising silk, brocade, carpets, tea, poppy, ivory and other items passed through the town on their way to China, Tibet, Yarkand and Kashmir. The old Bazar displayed a variety of Central Asian and Tibetan commodities even after the cessation of the central Asian trade in 1949 till these were exhausted about two decades ago. Similarly the ancient route — the Silk route — passing through the township was lined with several caravanserais. Now, since 1975 travellers of numerous nationalities have replaced traders of the past and Kargil has regained its importance as a centre of travel-related activities.

Two tributaries of the Suru river that meet at Kargil are the Dras and Wakha. The land available along the narrow valley is intensely cultivated in neat terraces to grow barley, wheat and peas. Poplars and willows besides apricots adorn the valley. The town and the adjoining villages form a rich oasis against the backdrop of the undulating lunar mountainscape. Apricots of Kargil are famous. In May the entire countryside gets covered with fragrant white apricot blossoms, while in August, the ripening fruit lends it an orange hue. But this time, the Kargil valley was stinking with smell of gun powder artillery and mortar shells. For Kargilis, it was nothing new. The firing and the shelling has been taking place regularly since April, 1997.

From a trade centre and a town of peaceful people, Kargil has since then become a town of bunkers. As the shelling continued unabated in 1998, the state government came out with a Rs 1 crore scheme to provide financial assistance and technical guidance to people for the construction of "bunkers" in their homes and at their workplace. In three years of shelling on civilian areas, 22 persons have died. Each family was given Rs 12,000 each for the construction of bunker. The scheme, however, did not meet the requirements or with the approval of the people. "The grant", they said, "was too small as a good family bunker would cost us anything between Rs 25,000 and Rs 30,000."

Further, the bunkers the government, constructed at public places, including the bus stand and school premises, are in a shambles. Filled with faecal matter and garbage, they stink. They have seldom been used. "They are in fact deathtraps", remarked a vendor at the bus stand. "It is better to get hit by a shell than die of the stink emanating from the unhygienic and unsafe bunkers," he adds.

The bunker mess-up apart, the residents, most of whom have already left their furnished homes and shops here, are also unhappy with the development of infrastructure in the town. The facilities are far from adequate. The district hospital does not have a gynaecologist. For a complicated delivery, one has to go either to Srinagar or to Leh. Either of the journeys by a taxi takes seven to eight hours.

Two senior secondary schools and the lone degree college in the district do not have sufficient staff.

These general grievances apart, most of the Kargilis are opposed to militancy and use of violence. "We are as patriotic as people elsewhere in the country," remarked Manzoor Ahmed, a social scientist.

When the Kargil battle was at its peak, young volunteers from 10 non-government organisations — the Tribal Society of Kargil, the Youth Voluntary Forum, the Social Justice Association, the Organisation of Health and Environment, the Ladakh Economic Development Project, the Kargil Development Project, Hamdard Society, the Children’s Welfare Organisation and the Rahat Association — got together, took a restaurant on rent, and organised a "Special free tea and snacks stall" for the men and officers of defence forces fighting the Pakistani intruders.

This continued for several days with 250 to 300 defence personnel making a stop-over to enjoy tea and snacks at the stall.

Nassar Munshi of the Social Justice Association says that the youth of Kargil has been up in arms against the continuous shelling of the town. "We organised a big demonstration outside the Pakistan Embassy in New Delhi. We also organised a rally of schoolchildren to express our solidarity with defence forces", he adds.

Since the shelling started in April, 1997, most of the peace-loving Kargilis have been leaving behind their furnished homes, shops and places of work to take refuge in nearby areas and villages, which are comparatively free from shelling. For example, a large number of families from as far as Pandrass, Dras, Chokiyal, Thasagam and Kargil have taken shelter with villagers at Minjhi, 13 km from Kargil.

Unabated shelling since April, 1997, notwithstanding, the situation took a turn for worse on May 8 and 9 when an ammunition depot at Kargil was targeted. Ammunition worth more than Rs 100 crore was destroyed. "It was a virtual Divali here as shells and other ammunition continued to explode for several hours together. Life came to a complete standstill as everybody took refuge in the bunkers. Fortunately for the town, no other major damage was done", remarked Nassar Munshi.

Meanwhile, Indian troops began moving into the area in large numbers. As shelling intensified, people started deserting their homes and places of work. It was in the first week of May that a "full-fledged battle" had begun along the 140-km-long stretch of Srinagar-Leh highway passing through the district.

The Army withdrew all its 58 battalions from internal security duty in Jammu and Kashmir. Some, which had some training of high altitude and mountain warfare were moved to Kargil to contain, isolate choke and destroy the armed intrusion from across the LoC. Two divisions — 8 Mountain Division and 3 Infantry Division — were assigned the task to demolish the enemy comprising mainly men and officers from the Pakistan army and Mujahideen, including foreign mercenaries.

It was a mere coincidence that 12 Jammu and Kashmir Light Infantry (JAKLI) which was on its way to peace time deployment after finishing its assignment at the Siachen, Glacier was caught in Batalik. The advance party of the battalion had already started assuming charge of the new assignment when the orders were reversed and the men and officers trained in the high altitude mountain warfare were asked to stay put in the Batalik sector and contain and repulse enemy attacks.

Similarly 2 Rajputana Rifles, 18 Garhwal Rifles, 8 Sikh Light Infantry, 18 Grenadiers, 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles (JAK Rifles), 27 Rajput, besides some units of Rashtriya Rifles and others were moved in.

In all nearly 16 battalions of the Indian Army were involved in the battle which saw for the first time the controversial Bofors gun being put to actual use. And these 155 mm artillery guns turned out to be our trumpcard in one of the most "intense" military operations which was carried out in full view of the media, especially the electronic media.

More than 500 newspersons, including those from the electronic media, covered the battle. Though technically, the Kargil battle fell short of being called a conventional "war" as most of the action took place on our side of the LoC, yet for all practical purposes, it was "full-fledged bloodiest battle" which left more than 1,000 persons dead and almost double this number seriously wounded. The Army took several groups of media persons to the battle zone. The visit of the last such group, which was to leave for Kargil on July 17, was cancelled at the last moment after cessation of the operations. The first group, which was the largest, had more than 140 newspersons, including photographers.

The number fell to 67 in the second, 37 in the third, 22 in the fourth, 43 in the fifth and 51 in the sixth and the last group. In between, some camera teams and foreign and Indian TV network teams were specially flown over the "action zone" in defence choppers. Some newspersons were also given special permission to visit advance positions, including hilltops and strategic locations, after they had been recaptured and sensitised.

Two newspersons were injured — one of them was hit by an artillery splinter at Dras and the other was injured when he slipped and rolled down a rock and had multiple bruises all over his body — while members of the sixth group of newspersons had a taste of artillery shelling. They made a scramble for cover and sprawled on ground in panic when shells rained at an electrical and mechanical engineers (EME) corps workshop at a forward base in Kargil. In 125 minutes, seven shells landed in and around the EME workshop where men and officers were working uninterruptedly in the special underground bunkers. Three army vehicles were damaged in shelling during the visit of the newspersons to the workshop.

Most of the support, cover and targeted artillery, mortar and rocket fire was from the forward bases along the Srinagar-Leh highway. It was this highway that bore the brunt of this battle. Though the EME was assigned the task of keeping this axis free and moving by retrieving and repairing military and civilian vehicles stranded on this one-way highway due to mechanical failures, shelling, overturning and accidents, in normal times the Border Roads Organisation looks after the upkeep and maintenance of this lifeline of Ladakh region. More than 1,000 vehicles use this highway up and down everyday. The entire supply of ration, petrol, diesel, arms and ammunition, men, vehicles, artillery guns and other material was sent through this highway.

There are scores of stone posts along the entire highway to commemmorate those workers and officers of the Border Roads Organisation who made the supreme sacrifices while maintaining this road. One of them named "Captain Maur", is at a curve at almost the highest point before the Zoji La Pass. There a young captain sacrificed his life in 1954. At this bend all drivers bow their head in reverence to the captain and pray for their safe journey.

Though no one is prepared to pinpoint the failure at the intelligence or other levels that led to this unprecedented intrusion, at places up to 18 to 20 km inside our territory from LoC, but one thing is certain that everyone had turned a blind eye to this development which had begun even before the shelling in Kargil district in April, 1997. How come the continuous shelling for three years in Kargil did not evoke any reaction from any quarters?

Senior defence forces who have served in the area maintain that the advanced posts along the LoC are vacated sometime in September-October every year before the onset of winter and are reoccupied in April-May of the subsequent year. In this area, besides the usual and normal operations of military intelligence, ponies and porters are the ones which bring back information about army build-ups or any other movement across the LoC . Otherwise the terrain is so inhospitable and difficult, that normal human movement in winter months is almost impossible.

Army officers admit that intruders or foreign mercenaries accompanied by Pakistan army regulars had virtually occupied almost all strategic features or heights or tops of all unnamed peaks overlooking the Srinagar-Leh highway. The intruders were close to the highway at Dras where they had occupied Tololing which is just 1.5 to 3 km from the highway top. From this point, the highway is within the range of medium machine gun fire, admit defence officers.

"When the action began, we were just like sitting ducks for our enemy. It could keep a complete watch on our movement and on more than one occasions, it used only boulders and stones to foil or repulse our advances and inflict heavy casualties on us", says Commanding Officer of one of the infantry battalions which was subsequently conferred with the unit commendation of the Chief of the Army Staff.

"When Tololing was captured, the air strikes had not started. True, at that time even theground situation was different and may not have suited air raids. Once we recaptured Tololing, the entire complexion of the battle changed", says Major Sandeep Singh Bajaj, second-in-command of 2 Rajputana Rifles.

On the other hand, in the Batalik sector, 12 JAKLI had evicted the enemy from a major strategic height in the second week of June. They first recaptured point 5203. It was this battle in which Capt Amol Kalia made the supreme sacrifice. His body could be retrieved from the battlefield much later.

But the major success came to the Indian forces on the night of July 3 and 4 when the prestigious Tiger Hill was recaptured. An adjoining feature, subsequently named Gun Hill, was also recaptured in the first week of July. By this time, the Indian forces were back in command at Tololing, Three Pimples, Tiger Hill, Gun Hill and a few other features. This had turned the heat on to the enemy which started fleeing, leaving behind large quantities of arms and ammunition but very little food.

Some of the bunkers evicted by the enemy were "double deckers" with living bunker below and firing bunker above. They were so well planned and constructed that even our artillery fire did not damage them much. In some bunkers even gas masks were found, giving an indication that the infiltrators were even prepared to use chemical weapons.

A lot of meticulous planning appears to have gone through before the intrusion started. And now, wiser by its experience, the Army has decided to say goodbye to internal security duty and concentrate on maintaining its vigil on the LoC along the highway so as prevent a recurrence of Kargil.

We have another Siachen on our hands. The Army is going to stay atop these recaptured features, including Tiger Hill and Gun Hill, besides others. The battle is over but a war has begun, a war to defend the borders of the country in extremely cold and inhospitable conditions. After Siachen, the coldest battlefield in the world, we now have the second coldest battlefield to defend also.