Good bait, I'll bite.
What were the Pakistani objectives of the kargil intrusion? I am sure it was not capturing one obscure peak. Kargil was part of baltistan district and was taken in 1948 by India from Pakistani invasion. According to the Shimla agreement (
ii) InJammu and Kashmir, the line of control resulting from the ceasefire of December 17, 1971, shall be respected by both sides without prejudice to the recognized position of either side. Neither side shall seek to alter it unilaterally, irrespective of mutual differences and legal interpretations. Both sides further undertake to refrain from the threat or the use of force in violation of this line. Siachein did not classify as a violation as the there was no demarcated recognized position in along NJ9842 but existed as LOC for kargil, batalik drass, kaskar etc.
That is the entire premise of objectivity, you don’t take anyones narrative blindly (which you seem to subscribe to), you read, deconstruct, analyze without prejudice and arrive to objective finding without bias. Oscar, horus, pfpilot, jungi joe shearer, rescue ranges, irfan baloch and lots of members here offer their objective evaluations on the all theater of conflicts worth discussing. Feel free to read their remarks.
Now coming to military success part your post in a part reflects the poor planning, shoddy risk evaluation and confused execution. What were the exact objectives of the kargil war, and what were you capable of achieving. Were you able to cut off Srinagar supply route to leh? Were you able to cut off supply route to siachin? All you were able to achive brilliantly was to surprise Indian forces by occupying empty position, these were not captured by ousting Indian forces but sneeked into. If that was the objective of entire kargil episode, then sure there is no argument that it was a success
Your own elected prime minister refutes those figure, Please present some references to the above claim as primary mainstay of Indian forces were the northern command, 3 infantry and select few regiments.
Therefore… that is an admission that Pakistan before mounting the attack as always had no Idea how far India will escalate this, same operation brasstack and Gibraltar syndrome came back to bite Pakistan again. So lets see where we are, in the last three statements, your military did not achieve the needed objectives, you intentionally violated Shimla agreement, your military kept your civilian government in dark, from recent revelation by Pakistani general, rest of the military command was also kept in dark, your military did not align the political sphere to the needed objectives, and grossly miscalculated the indian response.
Pakistan restrictions: why were there such restrictions? You send your soldiers to fight in Indian territory and don’t provide them air cover, supply lines, troop rotation. Shouldn’t such planning deemed treason instead of making them presidents? What do you buy those shiny toys for?
Yes we garnered all the support that we could, we got sat images too from one of your allies, but then who was stopping you to get what you needed for your objectives, not just in kargil but in all other conflicts. Does Pakistan always fight it’s wars with rules of engagement decided by it’s adversary? Our foreign policy allows us to consolidate all the support needed in time of need, and we did that successfully, whereas your f16’s couldn’t fly CAP due to shortage of spares. How shameful is that right there?
The only fiasco was for Pakistan as it’s democracy yet again succumbed to military dictatorship. All was not rosy on Indian side as it exposed our weaknesses, lack of equipment and finally kicked the leadership to modernize the forces.
What a facepalm moment when Pakistanis blame India, of deceit. It was your foreign minister, prime minister and for a while your ex COAS pleading to the world that the intrusion was perpetrated by Kashmiri mujhjideens , which turned out to be Active Pakistani military soldiers and officers (btw whose dead bodies were declined by your establishment). As far as medal is concerned, you might not now this that there were hundreds of false KIA’s in most of the wars, there always exists such room for error, especially when dealing with the second largest standing army on the face of this planet.
Lets see the reference to prove the above figures. We have never considered Pakistan as an existential threat, and doesn’t matter what the force levels Pakistan maintain, it will still hold the same nuisance value as it has since it’s inception.
Did we stop your fatherland from using any of the heavy equipment? Wars are fought to be won, India does that everytime with all tools at it’s disposal. And that is what we did, we did the same at brasstacks, at gibraltar, if anything kargil was a missed opportunity for India.
And was that the objective of Pakistan to initiate kargil. now to address the peak issue, India did not hold Point 5353 before the war broke out, so yes you did capture a peak or so, which has strategic importance. But we hold 18 peaks in the vicinity which we did not sneak into but, recaptured from your infiltrators, army of terrorists whatever you claim them to be.
It's good to laugh, I am amused that such gory chapters in our history brings a smile to your face.
What were your objectives in 1947 again and what did you achieve?
Were you able to liberate anything in 47-no
"........" - 65 - no
"........" - 71 - no
"........" - 99 - no
Now lets look at 1965, not sure if you understand Urdu but may be these gentelemtn might be able to set the record straight.
Lets here from few Pakistani Gentelmen, I think there narrative of the war differs from you to, but do take a few moments before you declare the "Sellouts"
Air Chief Marshal: Asghar Khan
Air Chief Marshal: Nur Khan
Brig (Retd) Saeed Ismat
Major (Retd.) Agha Humayun Amin
Col. S.G Mehd (SSG Commander)
What do you have to say about 1965 war?
If you were to ask me this question when I was a young officer, my reply would have been quite different because I fought in that war, saw tactical action and in my perception we did well and beat back the aggressor and won the war. As one matures, learns and has the ability to analyze, one begins to differentiate between myth and reality, of course, with the advantage of the hindsight. 1965 War manifested the shortsightedness and immaturity of our political and military leadership. Pakistan started with ‘Operation Gibraltar’ in Kashmir. We have been made to think it was very bold and imaginative in conception and prepared by a great General.
In my opinion it was bold, unimaginative, unpracticable plan. It was not in harmony with prevailing environment in Indian Held Kashmir. It was based on dangerous assumptions and its time frame was unrealistic and quixotic. The plan reflected strategic naivety and immaturity. To top it all the preparation and subsequently the execution displayed lack of professionalism. Since it lacked politico-strategic framework and vision it placed Pakistan in a very precarious position.
On its failure, ‘Operation Grandslam’ was launched, which did make military sense since it enjoyed the superiority of strategic orientation. The capture of objective (Akhnur Bridges) would sever the Indian lines of communication in Kashmir and force them to retract. This operation was to suffer a major setback when the advance was halted because of an explainable change of command in the middle of the battle. Indians were so threatened by this move that they attacked with full might across the international border threatening Lahore and Sialkot. Our leaders panicked, ‘Operation Grandslam’ was brought to a grinding halt. Later, a brilliantly conceived Riposte from Khem Karan failed because a correct mix of units was not mustered to achieve a superior relative strength situation at the right time at the right place.
We won a lot of battles but lost the war as we failed to attain the political aim of defreezing and the ultimate liberation of the Kashmir. Ayub Khan thus ruined the national economy by one wrong decision that had taken him several years to build.
Brig (Retd) Saeed Ismat, SJ
Cover Story
This in short is Nur Khan’s version of 1965 war, which he calls an unnecessary war and says that President Ayub for whom he has the greatest regard should have held his senior generals accountable for the debacle and himself resigned.
This would have held the hands of the adventurers who followed Gen Ayub. Since the 1965 war was based on a big lie and was presented to the nation a great victory, the Army came to believe its own fiction and has used since, Ayub as its role model and therefore has continued to fight unwanted wars — the 1971 war and the Kargil fiasco in 1999, he said.
In each of the subsequent wars we have committed the same mistakes that we committed in 1965.
Air Marshal Khan demanded that a truth commission formed to find out why we failed in all our military adventures. It is not punishment of the failed leadership that should be the aim of the commission but sifting of facts from fiction and laying bare the follies and foibles of the irresponsible leaders in matters with grave implications for the nation. It should also point out the irregularities committed in training and promotions in the defence forces in the past so that it is not repeated in future
Nur Khan reminisces ’65 war - Newspaper - DAWN.COM
Excerpt From the conclusion:
Major (Retd.) Agha Humayun Amin:
Ambition, lust for glory etc are perfectly reasonable aspirations where they are matched with military talent pertaining to operational strategy, low intensity operations, strategic insight or statesmanship! All these were sadly lacking at all levels, except unit level bravery and enthusiasm! Gibraltar failed because of pure and unadulterated military incompetence and Akhtar Malik bears the principle responsibility for Gibraltar! The Grand Slam story was different!It wasnot a case ofbalanced distribution of lack of talent at all levels that resulted in the failure of Grand Slam! The principle reason why Grand Slam failed was delay in initial launching and change of command!
Grand Slam - A Battle of Lost Opportunities
this is your Air Chief Marshal Asghar Khan.
Some of Col. S.G Mehdi wisdom.
Conclusion by SSG’s commander: “Had our Government initiated a probe into concept, conduct and consequences of 1965 War’, and raised the curtain from the acts of gross omission or that of the criminal commission, the ignominy of 1971 could have been avoided. “
1965 War — Some Harsh Realities | Ehtisham Siddiqui
71 that you concede as a defeat, actually showed better fight in the west pak than 65.
I’ll leave that job to your Dad, who I hope is not sanjay!