Tololing ridge freed
From Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, June 20 — Indian troops made significant gains in the last 24 hours in the Dras sub sector of the Kargil region of Jammu and Kashmir as more than a company-strength’ of infiltrators were evicted from the Tololing ridges bringing them totally under Indian control.

Although the casualties among the Indian soldiers rose sharply again yesterday with the number now standing at 144 men killed, the eviction of infiltrators from the Tololing ridges has given a strategic impetus to the Army operations in the region. The Army is now very close to Tiger Hill and the Line of Control and is now concentrating on advances in this region.

Adverse weather conditions prevailing in Srinagar and the area ahead of it hampered air strikes for the third day running and the Indian Air Force did not carry out any air strikes on the pockets of intrusion.

Indian troops launched a major operation late yesterday night and by the early this morning had captured Point 5140, the highest feature along the Tololing ridge. The Indian troops had earlier captured Tololing Hill on May 29 and another feature further north of it identified as Point 4590, was recaptured on June 13 last.

Reports here said that this operation, meticulously planned and executed as a multi-directional attack by columns from the Garhwal Rifles, Jammu and Kashmir Rifles and Naga Regiment battalions, had now given a strategic advantage to the Indian troops to fight infiltrators holed up in Tiger Hill, where there is already fierce fighting underway with soldiers trying to reach the positions of the intruders.

Being the highest feature along the Tololing ridge, the positioning of Indian troops on it has brought them at the same level with infiltrators holed up on Tiger Hill, the next feature in the region. It has also brought the Indian troops to within a kilometre of the Line of Control in the Dras sector.

Tiger Hill a strategic positions held by the infiltrators is very close to the LoC and the infiltrators in Tiger there are getting immense logistic support from across the border, allowing them to put up a strong resistance.

According to reports, having faced reverses in Tololing and being pushed out of the region, the Pakistani army is now targeting Point 5140 with heavy artillery and mortar firing to inflict casualties on Indian soldiers. However, the Indian troops have gained full control of it and are now completely entrenched.

Sources said that the capturing of Point 5140 will help Indian troops target Tiger Hill better and reduce casualties.

The capture of Point 5140, which comes almost 21 days after Tololing hill was recaptured on May 29 last, has also taken away the infiltrators advantage of sitting atop National Highway 1A. This point is the closest to the national highway and the infiltrators had been interfering with the movement of the convoys along it.

The reports said that this position was held by over a ‘company strength’ (approximately 100 men) of Pakistan's Northern Light Infantry, which necessitated the simultaneous attacks along multiple approaches. The degree of difficulty involved in executing the offensive manoeuvres can be seen in the time taken to regain it.

Army spokesman, Col Bikram Singh of the DGMO said that in operation a large number of casualties had been inflicted although there was no exact detail of numbers.

India lost three jawans in the operation and nine others were wounded.

The IAF spokesman, Grp Capt Ganesh said that the recapture of this area was crucial for further operations and the IAF had carried out the first attacks in this region on May 26.

The IAF spokesman said that till June 12 the area was targeted by Indian jets softening targets after which the Indian troops started advancing. It was during operations in this region that India had lost an MI-17 helicopter.

Meanwhile, the Indian Army has recovered yet another pay book of a Pakistani soldier identified as Sepoy Abdul Rauf of 5 Northern Light Infantry battalion. The pay book was recovered by the Indian troops during operations in the Batalik sector.

With this recovery it has now been established that in addition to the sub units of 3, 4 and 6 battalions of the Northern Light Infantry, the sub units of 5 Northern Light Infantry were also operating in the pockets of intrusion.

Asked what would be the next step by the Army now that the ridgeline had been cleared, the Army spokesman said security concerns stopped him from divulging the new objectives.

He said mopping up operations were still continuing at Point 5140, which was about 800 to 900 metres from the Line of Control (LoC) as the crow flies.

Asked if the Indian Army was putting troops on alert on the Punjab border, he said precautionary postures were always taken up contingent upon the moves of the enemy.

Regarding the controversy about the appointment of the Security Adviser to the Jammu and Kashmir government Lt Gen Avtar Singh, Col Singh said "action is being taken with regard to the changeover".

He said as per the last count, 313 Pakistani army soldiers had been killed in the Kargil sector.

Col Singh said the Pakistani Army resorted to unprovoked artillery shelling in Uri sector and mortar firing in Poonch, Bhimbergali and Naushera sectors.

Pak massing troops for fresh incursion

MOSCOW, June 20 (PTI) — A 15,000-strong Pakistani army formation is on standby for further incursion in Kargil, Russia's official "Rossiskaya Gazeta" daily reported today quoting intelligence sources.

G.R.U., the Russian military intelligence service which remained intact after the Soviet break-up and preserved its global spying network, also noted that Islamabad was concentrating more and more military formations in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) along the line of control, the daily said.

The agency is closely monitoring the situation in Kargil, the daily quoted Russian defence sources as saying.

G.R.U., the dreaded Russian military intelligence service, is believed to be focusing on training camps for terrorists and Islamic militants on Pakistani soil.

In an interview to NTV channel, deputy chief of the Russian interior troops, Lt Gen Stanislav Kovon criticised Islamabad for sending instructors to train terrorists in Russia's breakaway province of Chechnya and other neighbouring countries.

G-8 asks Pak to end infiltration

COLOGNE (Germany), June 20 (PTI) — Virtually putting the onus on Pakistan to end the Kargil conflict, the G-8 leaders today condemned violation of the Line of Control, called for an immediate end to fighting in the region and termed as "irresponsible" any military action to change the status quo of the LoC.

"We are deeply concerned about the continuing military confrontation in Kashmir following the infiltration of armed intruders which violated the Line of Control," the G-8 leaders said in a communiqué after their annual summit here.

Voicing deep concern over the military confrontation in Kashmir, they blamed the conflict on "the infiltration of armed men who violated the Line of Control" between India and Pakistan.

"We regard any action to change the status quo as irresponsible," the communiqué said.

"We therefore call for the immediate end of these actions, restoration of the Line of Control and the resumption of the dialogue between India and Pakistan in the spirit of the Lahore declaration," it said.

The G-8 leaders squarely condemned Pakistan’s actions to change the status quo of the LoC and called for an immediate end to the infiltration by armed intruders.

The communiqué appealed to India and Pakistan to work for an immediate cessation of fighting, respect fully the LoC in future and resume bilateral dialogue in the spirit of Lahore declaration.

The G-8 communiqué, according to diplomatic observers, reflects to a large extent the assessment of the Clinton administration on the Kargil conflict. US president Bill Clinton had earlier this week appealed to Pakistan to withdraw forces from the LoC in order to defuse tension in the region.

The group also expressed concern over escalation of tension over nuclear testing between India and Pakistan and urged the two to join international non-proliferation efforts.

Chairman Germany, the USA, the UK,Italy, France, Canada, Japan and Russia are the members of the group.

Meanwhile, Russian president Boris Yeltsin today hailed the return of peace after war in Kosovo as he arrived here to take part in the last day of the G-8 summit and hold bilateral talks with US President Bill Clinton.

"After the war we will have peace. That’s the most important thing," Mr Yeltsin said in brief comments to journalists at the airport.

The encounter with Mr Clinton was described as "crucial" by the Kremlin after the signing in Helsinki on Friday of a Russian-US accord on Russia’s participation in the peacekeeping operation in Kosovo.

The two presidents have not met since September.

Mr Yeltsin, who has been plagued by ill-health, has only been abroad twice in the past 12 months. And on his last trip, to Jordan for King Hussein’s funeral in February, he spent less than two hours in Amman.