A ‘White Paper’ released by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has stated that India knew about the Kargil operation plan “11 months before its launch.”
ISLAMABAD: A ‘White Paper’ released by the opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has stated that India knew about the Kargil operation plan “11 months before its launch.”
A lengthy report in The News, based on the 100-page document, however, does not indicate how India got to know of the plan, except saying New Delhi had made all necessary preparations “to turn this battlefield into a deadly trap for Kashmiri freedom fighters and Pakistan.”
The PML-N is headed by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and hopes to use this document against President Pervez Musharraf in the run-up to the parliamentary elections next year. Musharraf, on his part, has already responded to Sharif’s claim of being kept in the dark about the operations in an Urdu book, Gaddar Kaun?. His English language book, In the Line of fire is due for release shortly.
The White Paper, ‘Kargil adventurism — another huge defeat after Dhaka fall, who is responsible?’ was released in Karachi on Saturday. Pakistan’s dismemberment as a result of Bangladesh’s separation in 1971 remains a dominant debate on the role of the military and the Kargil operation was seen as a way of avenging it.
The White Paper alleges that Musharraf forcibly removed Sharif in 1999 as he feared being court-martialled for the Kargil defeat. It repeats the demand for a high-powered commission on the Kargil debacle at the earliest.
If the Indian government, despite winning in Kargil, had constituted a commission highlighting the pluses and minuses of the operation, what prevented Musharraf from constituting a commission in this regard, PML (N) leader Siddiqul Farooq, who released the report, asked.
“A naive military adventurer General Pervez Musharraf launched the operation without proper planning on May 8, 1999, causing loss of life of officers and Jawans of the Northern Light Infantry (NLI) and Kashmiri Mujahideens while India suffered a negligible loss of 474 soldiers,” he said.
Farooq said the Kargil operation had brought the two neighbouring countries to the brink of a nuclear war. He said ‘Operation Vijay’ was a clear and unquestionable diplomatic and military victory for India, while for Pakistan it was yet another repeat of Dhaka fall.
Musharraf had wilfully avoided constituting a commission to fix the responsibility for the huge military defeat that had demoralised the entire nation, Siddiqul Farooq said.
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