General Asim Munir acknowledges Pakistan army’s role in Kargil misadventure

Pakistan army chief General Asim Munir has acknowledged direct role of his country’s military in the 1999 Kargil war against India. The rare admission came at an event to commemorate “Defence Day” at Rawalpindi on Friday.

This may not be the first such admission by the Pakistan army, but is significant enough as it comes 25 years after the war that led to further militarisation along the Line of Control (LoC). The Pakistan army had initially distanced itself from its role in the conflict, claiming “freedom fighters” were involved.

“Pakistan is a brave nation, which understands the importance of freedom and how to pay for it. Be it the wars of 1948, 1965, 1971, Kargil or the Siachen conflict, thousands of soldiers sacrificed their lives for the country and Islam,” said General Munir at the event.

Soldiers died in war

Be it the wars of 1948, 1965, 1971, Kargil or the Siachen conflict, thousands of soldiers sacrificed their lives for the country (Pak). General Asim Munir, Pakistan Army Chief

The statement was picked up by several social media handles, claiming it was the “first” such admission by Pakistan. On the contrary, the Pakistan army in 2010 officially acknowledged and named 453 soldiers and officers killed in the 1999 conflict. Their names, ranks and decorations were put up in the “Shuhada’s Corner” (martyrs’ corner) of its website.

In fact, the operation to occupy peaks on the Indian side of the LoC was codenamed “Operation Koh-e-Paima (KP)”. The cause of death of it soldiers was listed as “killed in action, enemy action, enemy firing, enemy artillery shelling”.

Even before that, former president General Pervez Musharraf, who was the Pakistan army chief during the Kargil war, in his book “In the Line of Fire” had claimed: “Kargil was not a one-off operation, but the latest in a series of moves and countermoves at a tactical level by India and Pakistan along the LoC.”

Musharraf had asserted that in military terms, “the Kargil operations were a landmark in the history of the Pakistan army”. He had gone on to describe how a small number of Pakistan army deployment led to reaction from India. “As few as five battalions (of Pakistan army), in support of the freedom fighter groups, were able to compel the Indians to employ more than four divisions,” Musharraf had written in his book, published while he was still the country’s president, making it the first official acceptance of its military’s direct role in the conflict.

During the war, the Indian Army had handed over the bodies of Pakistani soldiers in coffins, draped in the country’s flag, to its army at a border crossing near Kargil.

Pakistan had initially refused to accept these, but it did later. Some of those not accepted were buried with full honours by Indian troops. Nearly 550 soldiers and officers of the Indian Army were killed in the war.