Right Word | 1999 Kargil War: When Courage Climbed Higher Than The Himalayas

Kargil remains as one of independent India's defining military victories given unfavourable odds against which the Indian Army fought

When travellers plan a journey to Ladakh, they are often advised to arrive by road rather than fly directly into Leh. These advisories are not random and have little to do with roadside scenery, but it has everything to do with survival as the gradual ascent through the high Himalayas gives the human body enough time to adjust as the air begins to thin with oxygen levels decreasing dramatically with altitude.

For reference, the atmospheric pressure in Delhi averages around 730 to 735 mm Hg and in Leh it drops to roughly 480 to 520 mm Hg. For most people, even walking a short distance can leave them breathless. Now imagine fighting a war there.

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Twenty-seven years ago, up in the high Himalayas of Kargil, the Indian Army in the summer of 1999 defeated two enemies: one fortified atop the mighty slopes of the naked mountains overlooking every movement below and over one of the harshest battlefields in the world. Every assault during the Kargil war required soldiers to clamber up near-vertical cliffs, often under enemy fire and carrying heavy loads in freezing temperatures while struggling to draw each breath. The victory in Kargil was therefore as much a military success as it was a triumph of endurance, courage and an extraordinary display of human will by the Indian Army.

In the spring of 1999, Pakistan launched a carefully orchestrated intrusion across the Line of Control (LoC) into the Kargil sector. The operation shattered an unwritten understanding that had largely governed the high Himalayan front for years. When temperatures plunged far below freezing and snow buried mountain posts during the brutal winter months, both armies traditionally vacated some of the highest positions because sustaining troops there was nearly impossible. This understanding rested on a shared recognition that nature itself imposed limits no army could ignore.

But Pakistan chose to exploit that trust. Under the direction of Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf, it infiltrated regular soldiers from its elite Special Services Group (SSG), paramilitary personnel from its Northern Light Infantry (NLI), besides its patronised jihadist fighters whom it had long cultivated as instruments of regional policy and used against India in Kashmir and in Afghanistan. The goal of the intrusion was to seize the commanding heights overlooking National Highway 1A, the vital Srinagar-Leh Road, sever Ladakh from the Kashmir........

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