25 years of Kargil: Lessons and the need for a 'warcraft'

A strategy of warcraft' premised on all the vital components of national power (economic, academic, diplomatic, military and informational) is a necessity.

- MANISH BARMA

THE KARGIL CONFLICT

Pakistan’s long-standing desire to separate Kashmir from India and avenging the immediate loss of face at Siachen in 1984 are the primary causes of the Kargil conflict of 1999. It is thought that in 1988, Pakistan’s then Brigadier Pervez Musharraf discussed a plan with then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto for cutting off Kashmir from the rest India by overlooking the SrinagarLeh National Highway 1. Winter temperatures in this erstwhile Jammu and Kashmir’s Kargil, Drass and Batalik regions can drop as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius. There was an unspoken understanding between the armies of India and Pakistan that due to the near inhabitable terrain and weather of the area, the border posts on both sides of the Line of Control would be abandoned, and would be taken up once the snows would start to melt. But the plan, which became a reality several years later, was about surreptitiously occupying those posts during the winters, thereby, catching India unaware and eventually, forcing India to negotiate on the Kashmir issue.