Kargil War
Location
Before 1947, Kargil was a part of Gilgit-Baltistan. Now it is a town in the Indian controled Kashmir. Kargil lies on the line of control facing the Northern Areas of Pakistan. Kargil is the only Muslim majority district in the Ladakh subdivision. Kargil is nestled in the Himalayas giving it a cool temperate climate. Summers are cool with frigid nights while winters are long and cold with temperatures often dropping to -40°C. A national highway connecting Srinagar to Leh, cuts through Kargil.
Squatting by insurgents
In late May 1999, Islamic guerrillas covertly backed by Pakistan squatted on vantage heights in the Indian controlled region. This led to mobilisation of Indian troops in Operation Vijay to forcibly evict them. The Indian Air Force used laser guided bombs to annihilate the well entrenched positions of the terrorists. The Indian army fought and won valiant victories against considerable odds retaking most of the heights.
Pakistan received widespread world condemnation for the failure to patrol its borders and allow insurgents into operate in its soil. The Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif flew to meet US president Bill Clinton on July 4, to earn support from one of its oldest allies. However Clinton rebuked Sharief, asking him to use his contacts to reign in the militants. Faced with growing international pressure, Sharief managed to pull the back the few surviving insurgents from Indian territory. 527 Indian army soldiers were killed.
Fallout
India
The fallout of the war saw the Indian stock market rising by over 1500 points. The next Indian budget included a massive defensive hike. Indians nationwide united and army enlistment swelled. Celebrities pitched in visiting injured service personnel. From then onwards till February 2000, the Indian economy was bullish.
On 8 June, India and Pakistan clashed in the Cricket World Cup. Though traditional rivals, this matched was marked with an increased hostility, with many seeing it was a war between the two nations. India comfortably won the match. The Indian military then severed all ties with Pakistan, and increased it defence preparedness.
Pakistan
Faced with the possibility of international isolation, the Pakistani economy tumbled and was shunned as a global hotbed for terrorism. In October 1999, General Pervez Musharraf staged a bloodless coup d'etat ousting PM Nawaz Sharief. According to Benazir Bhutto, a formaer prime minister of Pakistan, Kargil war was Pakistan's biggest blunder. For nearly three months the Kargil conflict threatened South Asia with the prospect of the first nuclear war since Hiroshima. More than 3000 Pakistani soldiers, belonging to the Northern Light Infantry or NLI, were killed and more than 300 dead bodies buried on the terrains of Kargil, when Pakistan Army denied accepting to them.
