India’s victory over Pakistan in the 1999 Kargil war underscores the country’s resolve to confront any threat to its territory, identity or honor with full force, Defense Minister Rajnath Singh said on Tuesday.
“At an altitude of around 20,000 feet, where breathing is difficult, oxygen is scarce and the temperature drops to minus 40 degrees, our brave soldiers turned the impossible into the possible under these remote and harsh conditions,” Singh said at an event in the run-up to the 27th Kargil Vijay Diwas on July 26.
Twenty-seven years ago the Indian Army rewrote the rules of mountain warfare and overcame staggering odds to expel a treacherous enemy from the dizzying heights it had occupied in the Kargil sector just months after signing the Lahore Peace Declaration.
Singh said that the Indian soldiers achieved their goals with courage and resilience. “They reclaimed every peak, hill and hideout from enemy control and upheld the honor of the tricolour. The victory represents India’s enduring resolve to respond with full force to any hostile look at our land, our identity and our honour,” he said.
This limited war, India’s fifth, broke out in the summer of 1999 along a 170-kilometre-long mountainous border, stretching from the Maskoh Valley to Turtuk in the Kargil sector, after thousands of Pakistani infiltrators exploited loopholes in Indian defenses and crept across the Line of Control to seize several commanding heights, some of which offered a sweeping view of the strategic Srinagar-Leh highway.
The Defense Minister launched a motorcycle expedition from the National War Memorial in the capital to the Kargil War Memorial in Drass, as part of the ongoing nationwide celebrations to mark the 27th anniversary of the war victory.
The 13-day Shaurya Vijay Yatra expedition has 28 passengers, including serving and retired Defense Forces personnel and their family members, who will cover a distance of 1,900 km, passing through challenging Himalayan terrain to honor the supreme courage, determination and sacrifice of Indian brave hearts, the Defense Ministry said.
A total of 527 Indian soldiers were killed in action. There is no precise accounting of casualties in the Pakistani army, but various estimates put the number at between a few hundred and a few thousand.
Campaign slogan: “One Journey, One Nation, One Hail.” En route, riders will pay tribute to prominent war memorials, including those at Chandimandir, Razang La and Leh, she added.
