Defense Minister Rajnath Singh will travel to Ladakh on July 26 to attend the 27th Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations in Drass, highlighting how Indian soldiers overcame tough odds to dislodge a treacherous enemy from the strategic heights it occupied in the Kargil sector in the summer of 1999, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.
Senior military officials, including Army Chief General Dhiraj Seth, will attend the event to commemorate the victory in the limited war – India’s fifth – along the 170-km mountainous border, which stretches from Machkoh Valley to Turtuk in the Kargil sector, the people added.
Kargil war heroes and families of those killed in action will be among those in attendance. As many as 527 Indian soldiers were killed during the Kargil War. While there is no specific calculation of losses among the ranks of the Pakistani army, various estimates indicate that the number ranges between a few hundred and a few thousand.
Read also:guest column | July 4: The day India regained control of Tiger Hill in 1999
Singh said last week that India’s victory over Pakistan in the Kargil War confirms the country’s determination to confront any threat to its territory, identity or honor with full force.
A few months after the signing of the Lahore Peace Declaration, thousands of Pakistani infiltrators took advantage of loopholes in Indian defenses and infiltrated across the Line of Control to seize several controlling heights. Some of these sites provided a bird’s-eye view of the strategic Srinagar-Leh highway.
The lessons learned from the war and the events leading up to it resulted in the reform of India’s intelligence apparatus, far-reaching military reforms, the modernization of the armed forces, and greatly improved border management.
At last year’s celebrations, then Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi used the platform to highlight the ongoing restructuring of the Army aimed at enhancing its ability to achieve decisive results in battle. At the historic 25th anniversary celebrations in 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi issued a strong warning to Pakistan, stating that the Indian Army would crush terrorism emanating from that country with full force while reminding it of its past defeats and failures.
