Kargil 1999: Pakistan’s Fourth War for Kashmir

Publisher: IDSA and Knowledge World

ISBN: 81-86019-22-7

This volume puts together the core aspects that combined to culminate in the Kargil war and an account of the why and how of that war.

Pakistan launched its fourth war for Kashmir in the summer of ’99. This statement needs some elaboration. Pakistan has fought a total of five wars with India:

1. 1947-48 War
2. 1965 War
3. 1971 War
4. The covert War since the early 1980s which began with the battles for Saichen and which continues
5. Kargil War in 1999

Of these, the war in 1971 was not specifically planned or fought with the primary purpose of taking Kashmir but all the other four were.

We see a continuity in those wars not only of the political-military objective but also of the assumptions, mind-sets, strategy and of Pakistan’s defeat. There is also continuity in the nature of Pakistani responses to these wars and the outcome in each case which is marked by absence of realism and unwillingness to accept reality.

The Kargil War is also significant in that while Pakistan escalated its cover war (in 1988) after it acquired nuclear weapons in 1987, this is the first war fought with regular forces between the two states that had become overtly nuclear although not the first between nuclear-armed states. And hence this volume that attempts to place the latest war in the context of the earlier attempts to take Kashmir by force.

Because of the prolonged covert war and the rise of the Taliban phenomenon, it was natural that the focus would be weighted towards this aspect and its expansion to other parts of India. After the overt nuclearisation of India and Pakistan in 1998, no one expected a full-scale war nor was it a realistic scenario.

The most important conclusion of the war is that few countries openly showed sympathy with the Indian position till the forward advance of our jawans up the mountains of the Kargil sector became unbeatable and the key heights started to be captured by the Indian army. Toward the end of June, it became clear that Pakistan ;would need a face-saving device. This was why the US President spent the 4th July at work. But the propensity to transfer blame internally had kept increasing tensions between the dominant elements of the national power structure in Pakistan and has finally led to the military coup once again in Pakistan

Table of Contents

Introduction

CHAPTER ONE
The Kashmir Issue

CHAPTER TWO
The Army in Pakistan

CHAPTER THREE
Battle for Siachen : Beginning of the Third War

CHAPTER FOUR
Mujahideen and the Covert War

CHAPTER FIVE
The Fourth War

CHAPTER SIX
Pakistan’s Military Defeat

CHAPTER SEVEN
Indian Air Force in Action

CHAPTER EIGHT
International Responses

CHAPTER NINE
Beyond Kargil

Postscript
Chronology
Appendices
Index