Pakistan for the first time has admitted its soldiers fought in the Kargil war in 1999. This assertion came from none other than Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir. Islamabad, till now, denied any role in the conflict and maintained ‘mujahideens’ (freedom fighters) waged the war. India had all along reiterated that Pakistan army soldiers were actively involved in the war.
Speaking at an event in Rawalpindi to mark the country’s Defence Day, Pakistan army chief General Munir said several soldiers had laid down their lives while fighting the wars in 1965, 1971 and in Kargil in 1999.
"Be it 1948, 1965, 1971, or the Kargil war of 1999, thousands of soldiers have sacrificed their lives for Pakistan and Islam," the Army chief said.
"The Pakistani community is a community of braves which understands the importance of freedom and how to pay for it," General Munir said. The event was attended by senior military and governmental officials, and families of soldiers.
The Pakistani army has never publicly acknowledged its direct role in the Kargil War and has officially claimed that it was the work of "mujahideen or freedom fighters." In fact, it refused to take bodies of its dead soldiers during the Kargil war.
Pakistan suffered a crushing defeat in the war, with Indian soldiers successfully reclaiming the positions occupied by infiltrators on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LOC) in the Kargil sector, including Tiger Hill, after a nearly three-month-long battle.
Then US President Bill Clinton also asked Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to order the withdrawal of Army personnel from the Kargil sector.
The day is observed as ‘Kargil Vijay Diwas’ to commemorate India’s victory over Pakistan in the war. A total of 545 soldiers laid down their lives fighting the Pakistani intruders.
India has always maintained the operation was a strategy by Pakistan to assert its claim over Kashmir. India has several evidence of involvement of the Pakistani army in Kargil, including prisoners of war, their pay books, uniforms, and weapons. The Indian Army buried several dead Pakistani soldiers in Kargil after the war.
The Pakistani Army had refused to accept the bodies of soldiers killed in Kargil. The authorities had secretly sought bodies of Pakistani officers killed in the war.
India has consistently asserted that the conflict was a direct act of aggression by the Pakistani military. The Pakistani army’s intrusion into Kargil with terrorists as a cover became evident from the intercepted conversation between General Pervez Musharraf (while visiting Beijing) and his Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Mohammed Aziz in Rawalpindi on May 26 and May 29.
