Operation Vijay Begins – Full Mobilisation

Within a matter of days it became clear to the Indian authorities as to how far the intruders, consisting of Afghan Mujahideen and troops from the Pakistani Northern Light Infantry, had crossed the Line of Control inside the Indian area. The casualty ratio was 10:1, meaning that for every one Pakistani soldier killed, ten Indian soldiers would die due to the advantage — the intruders occupied bunkers previously occupied by the Indian soldiers on the tops of mountains and hills. But before the Indian troops could move into the villages, the Pakistani Northern Light Infantry opened up its artillery guns and began shelling the villages. Indian authorities quickly responded to this by ordering people to evacuate.

In the meantime, as information became more apparent on how far inside the intruders were, the order for full mobilisation of troops was given. This meant that any military training or any such activities taking place in the area of Kashmir or elsewhere, had to be ceased and all prepared for mobilisation. Elsewhere the coastguards were ordered to inform relevant authorities of any Pakistani naval ships or aircraft seen in the area.

Soon a section of Gurkhas from the 1/11 group under the command of Colonel Lalit Rai, were ordered to go into the area of Khalubar, a few miles near the Line of Control. As the men, led by Lt Manoj Pandey, approached the area, the lieutenant saw bodies of Indian soldiers. They were frozen and some were still holding on to their weapons, but they had all died from gunshot wounds and what seemed like shrapnel from shells exploding. The lieutenant ordered his men to take cover when suddenly there was a burst of machinegun fire from the top of the ridges nearby. One of the first victims to fall was Ramesh Thappa, who earlier on had sent money home to his parents. The conflict had now begun and as the world got the news, reporters from all over the world began to arrive.

In the meantime the troops near the area of Mount Tololing, several miles west of Khalubar, began to suffer casualties. One of the first was Major Rajesh Singh Adhikari. On the night of 13 May, he led a group of men to take out a bunker that had been occupied by troops from the Pakistani Northern Light Infantry. The battle soon intensified and the major ordered his men to retreat behind a nearby ridge, and he himself then prepared to attack. As he led the attack with just a couple of men to support him, a hand-to-hand combat with the opposition followed but tragedy struck as the major was shot by an unknown sniper and died on the spot. The other men, noticing that they were soon going to be outnumbered, retreated to the ridge. Moments later, forces from the Pakistani troops and the Mujahideen began to lay booby traps around the major's dead body and began to taunt the Indian soldiers to come and retrieve his body.

The Indian Air Force transported troops to various regions, and also took part in the conflict by bombing various points that were occupied by the intruders. It also suffered from tragedy at various times during the conflict but managed to delivery severe blows to the intruders on the ground which helped the soldiers. One of the fallen was Captain Anuj Nayyar of the 17 JAT Rifles, who was posthumously awarded the Maha Vir Chakra, India's second highest gallantry award, for his heroism.

Operation Safed Sagar - Indian Air Campaign

On 11 May, 1999, as the Indian Air Force began its air campaign against the infiltrators, Srinagar airport, which is not only used for civilian purposes but also for military as well, was ordered to be closed to civilians. At the same time everyone was instructed that no-one was allowed to cross the Line of Control. The Indian Air Force (IAF) used attack helicopters in the initial stages, and on 25 May, MiG-27s, MiG-29s and MiG-23s, along with Jaguars and Mirage 2000s, took off from Srinagar, Avantipur and Adampur air bases, and began to bomb the positions which had been taken over by the insurgents. In the meantime MI-17 gunships were ordered to move into action in the Tololing area. Two of the MiG jets were shot down over the Batalik sector, incurring the first fatalities. The pilot of the MiG-27 was Flight Lt Nachiketa, who, upon noticing puffs of white smoke, decided to carry out a second attack on the target by firing bullets from his 30mm guns. But pulling out of the dive he noticed that the RPM had slowed down, meaning that his jet had been hit, and that left him no option but to eject and bail out. Within seconds he informed the squadron leader Ahuja and ejected.

Later the squadron leader took off again from the airbase to search for Flight Lt Nachiketa, but upon doing this, he himself was shot down. Later the Indian authorities found his body riddled with bullet holes. Flight Lt Nachiketa had been taken across to Pakistan as a POW (prisoner of war). He was later paraded on television and this prompted the Indian Authorities to accuse Pakistan of violating the Geneva Convention on the treatment of POWs.

As the Indian Air Force began to face losses, it began to reassess its strategy, and immediately withdrew its helicopters because they were vulnerable to stinger missiles, one of the insurgents' weapons. These missiles were originally supplied to Pakistan by the United States of America in its campaign during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the late 1970s/early 1980s. The 2007 movie Charlie Wilson's War, which stars Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, is based upon the decision made by the USA at the time and how these weapons were dispatched to the Pakistani government. These weapons were supplied by Pakistan to the insurgents, and it was later that the Texas congressman Charlie Wilson made the comment: 'We have well and truly f****d up'.

Despite the losses that were being encountered by the IAF, it continued with hundreds of sorties, and soon the losses began to reduce. This enabled it to fight in a better position over the mountains and the hills, and it was this that really assisted the Indian troops on the ground. During the air campaign, the Indian Air Force never came into contact with the Pakistani Air Force, and never did any of the aircraft involved cross over the 'Line of Control'.

Operation Vijay - The Ground Offensive

As the air campaign was taking place, the Indian troops on the ground faced one tragedy after another, and bodies of dead soldiers were repatriated for their families to cremate them if they were Hindu and bury them if they were Muslims. A lot of the dead were junior officers and ordinary soldiers. On the night of 6 June a group of men under the command of M from the 18 Grenadiers moved into position to climb up the steep slopes of mount Tololing. Slowly as they approached their target they realised that it was heavily fortified, and had no option but to destroy it.

A bitter gun battle soon began and was followed by hand-to-hand combat. One soldier, Yogendra Singh Yadav, was shot in the chest and as he sat down to take cover and nurse his injuries behind a ridge, called out to his friend and comrade, who shared his name. But before the comrade could respond, he was shot in the forehead by a sniper. The other Yogendra Singh Yadav, having heard his friend's cry, ran over to him, but although shot 15 times by machine gun fire, he managed to throw grenades and silence the guns.

As he staggered down to meet Lt Balwan Singh, he informed his commanding officer that he had overheard on the Pakistani communication systems that reinforcements were being deployed to the area. The surviving Yogendra Singh Yadav was then taken to the military hospital and treated for his injuries. He was later awarded the highest Indian military honour, the Param Vir Chakra, for his heroism.

Slowly but gradually the intruders were being pushed back. The element of using full military force by India and the quick pace that it involved, took the Pakistani authorities by complete surprise. The political pressure began to mount on Pakistan, as it became evident that the intrusion included Pakistani forces along with the Mujahideen. The Pakistani government denied that its forces were involved in the conflict, but the evidence that was being gathered showed the opposite was true.

Political Pressure Begins to Mount

American President Bill Clinton informed Nawab Sheriff that he would only intervene once the Pakistani forces and the Mujahideen had withdrawn from the Indian side of the 'Line of Control'. He also informed the Pakistani leader that he was waiting for the Pakistani authorities to hand over to him the leader of Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden¹. He was wanted in connection with the attempted bombing of the Twin Towers in New York in 1993, also the attack on the American warship USS Cole, as well as for the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair indicated that Britain, a former colonial power in the region, would not intervene unless requested, but he did indicate to the Pakistani leader that his troops should return to their former positions — back in Pakistan. This reaction pleased the Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

As the fighting intensified members of the Pakistani armed forces and the Mujahideen were slowly pushed back by Indian troops companies. One of these was the 13 JAK Rifles, which was under the command of Lt Col YK Joshi, more popularly known to his men as 'Joe'. Upon arrival at the camp, he immediately ordered his men that under no circumstances were they to cross the Line of Control. He encouraged his men by saying that other companies who had suffered casualties had not had as much time to acclimatise as they had. He also said that it was time that the intruders were pushed back to where they came from. But deep down he knew this was not going to be an easy task, and that many would not even live to see the end of the conflict. One man who stood out from the other junior officers in the regiment was Vikram Batra, nicknamed 'Sher Shah', meaning 'lion king', would later be promoted to Captain.

On 12 June, Colonel Ravindranath of the 2nd Rajputana Rifles gave instructions to his men to write their wills and letters home for they would soon be moving into action. Prior to this, a small group of men under the command of Major Vivek Gupta of the 18th Grenadiers had managed to capture ground on which the 2nd Rajputana Rifles were now camping. During the battle the Major was killed in action. Later his wife, Jyoti, a medic at the field military hospital, was informed of her husband's death.

At 18:30 that evening, the Bofors 155mm guns opened up and shells began to hit the bunkers occupied by the infiltrators and the Pakistani military on top of Mount Tololing. A minute later, this was followed by shells from 105mm and 130mm guns. From another side of the mountain, Lt Balwan Singh ordered the ageing multiple rocket launchers to be fired. The Indian Army was now in a full-swing operation and was showing its might.

By 2.30am, despite heavy shelling from the Indian artillery, there were still some pockets of resistance, and it was these which opened up with machinegun fire as the crawling Indian troops began to appear on the scene hurling grenades at various targets. But finally they managed to reach the targets and soon hand-to-hand combat followed. At 4.10am, news came through that Tololing been re-captured. As he broke the news, Colonel Ravindranath wept as he thought about the men who had been killed in action, and their families. For once again, most of them were ordinary soldiers and junior officers.