The 21st Century, till now has been the most peaceful time for the whole Human World. Back until the 1960’s, wars were commonplace and were considered to be a part of human civilization. The two World Wars and the time before that when many empires were created and crumpled, these ages witnessed intense warfare that took many lives and gravely affected the lives of even those who survived.
In 1999, Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants infiltrated the Indian side of the LOC, the aim of this operation for the Pakistani military was to create a rift in the links between Kashmir and Ladakh and to force India into a quick negotiation regarding the issue of Kashmir. The special forces of the Pakistan Military were the prime reasons for this conflict as they began to set up bases on points of high altitude on the Indian side of the LOC region in Kargil. This move was well-planned considering the fact that a higher altitude would provide a better vantage point and a higher point to attack the Indian Armed forces.
Initially, the Indian Army was not able to detect the intrusions due to the fact that the Army men were not anywhere near the areas on the Indian side of LOC infiltrated by the Pakistani military, and the armed forces of Pakistan used heavy artillery fire to divert the attention of the Indian army which allowed the infiltrators to sneak into the Indian Territory. By the time the Indian Military realized the scale of this infiltration, it was too late as the Pakistani forces had already got control of an area of nearly 130 km²-200 km².
However, the Indian Military decided to do everything it could to stop the efforts of the opposition and initiated the operation called ‘Operation Vijay’, in which nearly 2,00,000 Indian soldiers were mobilized. However, the conditions of the battlefield weren’t suitable for such a massive amount of deployment, and so, Two Divisions of the Indian Army, The Paramilitary forces, and the Indian Air Force were deployed to the battle zone. The estimated amount of Indian troops which participated in the conflict is estimated to be around 30,000, while the number of infiltrators was around 5000.
This, however, wasn’t a conflict where the numbers would have turned the game. The Pakistani infiltrators had a great advantage of being positioned on a higher ground than their rivals, which gave them a better line of sight and allowed them to make full use of their artillery. But the sheer willpower and strength of the Indian Armed forces ended up making India the Victor of this conflict which lasted over 2 months. In the end, with over 500 casualties and more than 1,300 soldiers injured, the Indian Army was able to gain back around 80% of the territories captured by the Pakistani Armed Forces. On 26th July 1999, Pakistan had to end the war due to the mounting international pressure and due to the pressure from the dominating Indian Army.
This conflict is still remembered even after 18 years due to the intensity of the battles and the sacrifices made by the many soldiers who lost their lives. Today, there is little chance that a conflict of this scale would take place again, primarily due to the threat of Nuclear Power, which is what has held most of the countries from going all out to a full-scale war. The capabilities of weapons of Mass Destruction, such as the Nuclear Bombs are so intense that there’s no country which could get ready to War at the expense of having the rival nations activate High-intensity Weapons to blow up entire societies, civilization and destroy millions of lives.
