26 years of the Kargil victory: How the Indian Army drove out Pakistani infiltrators and crushed Musharraf’s treachery

26th July, 2025, is the 26th anniversary of the day India won the Kargil War. Known as Kargil Vijay Diwas, this day is a reminder of the courage and sacrifice of Indian soldiers who fought bravely in one of the toughest battles in our country’s history. The war, which ended on this very day in 1999, was fought to drive out Pakistani troops and militants who had secretly taken over key positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) in the Kargil district of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistani infiltration along the LoC triggered the conflict

The war began in May 1999, when the Indian Army detected that Pakistani troops and terrorists had entered Indian territory across the Line of Control (LoC). Nevertheless, the infiltration itself had begun earlier, in February 1999, under a secret operation called Operation Badr.

Pakistani troops of the Northern Light Infantry and mujahideen combatants moved in stealthily into the Indian side of the LoC. They dressed up as militants and seized strategic mountain peaks and ridges. This was a timely move, undertaken during winter when Indian posts at high altitudes tended to remain unmanned due to extreme weather conditions.

The objective was to capture the Srinagar-Leh highway (NH 1), which is the lifeline of Srinagar, linking it to Leh and the Siachen Glacier. By capturing peaks overlooking this highway, the intruders would be able to keep tabs and impede Indian troop and logistics movement.
The mastermind behind the plan

Mastermind behind ‘Operation Badr’

General Pervez Musharraf, the then Chief of Army Staff of the Pakistan Army, was said to be the mastermind of the infiltration in Kargil. The intention behind the infiltration strategy was to seize strategic heights in the Kargil sector so that Pakistani troops could control a strategic area and sever the important Srinagar-Leh highway, thus crippling Indian supply lines. The plan was to build international pressure on India so that it would be compelled to negotiate about the issue of Kashmir. It is a notion that one of the key causes of the Kargil War was to persuade India to retreat from Siachen if Pakistan retreated from Kargil.

There was one odd thing that almost no one else in the higher-level ranks of the Pakistan leadership knew what he was doing. Not the Prime Minister, not the Air Force or Navy, not even the majority of top-rank officers in the army. Musharraf only revealed it to a few of his trusted generals. As Pakistani officer Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz has later explained in his book, even the Director General of Military Operations did not know.

Slipping into Kargil, peak by peak

Pakistani troops had occupied over 150 Indian positions on the Line of Control by February 1999. They entrenched themselves at Dras, Batalik, Mushkoh, Kaksar, and Tololing, even conquering the formidable Tiger Hill. These were not hills; these were positions that provided them with a bird’s-eye view of NH-1 highway, India’s jugular to Ladakh and Siachen.

Using artillery at these heights, they might have choked supplies and troop movements to large areas. The plan was cruel. And nobody in India knew what had happened for quite some time.
How India discovered and responded quickly

A shepherd from Garkhon village, Tashi Namgyal, had first spotted the intruders at Jubar ridgeline in Batalik on 3rd May, 1999, and alerted the Army. Indian patrols soon went out and discovered bunkers, camps, and enemy presence deep within Indian land.

There is also one which says Musharraf’s phone calls were tapped when he was travelling in China and told the CIA, which in turn informed India. Whatever the truth, by the early part of May, India knew something serious was going on in Kargil. This was no small invasion. It was an undeclared war.

India strikes back: Operation Vijay begins

The Indian government moved into action immediately with Operation Vijay, a military campaign to evict the intruders and recover the posts. But this was no typical battlefield. Soldiers had to climb vertical slopes, with 20 kg loads of backpacks on their backs, as they were being fired at from above. The night temperatures were below sub-zero. Oxygen was thin. And the intruders enjoyed the benefits of higher ground.

The Indian Air Force also launched Operation Safed Sagar to provide air support and conduct airstrikes on enemy positions. This led to intense combat in the rugged and harsh mountain terrain to recapture the occupied territories.

The Battle that made history

One of the toughest and earliest battles was for Tololing. It was in the sector of Dras and controlled the highway. The opposition was well entrenched. But Indian soldiers, led by young officers, kept pushing forward. On 13th June, 1999, Tololing was retaken after days of fierce combat. It was a great morale enhancer.

And then there was the battle for Tiger Hill – the most symbolic of all. The hill was heavily fortified. Climbing it in the face of heavy artillery fire was suicidal. But Indian troops, by sheer will and cunning strategising, broke out with a surprise night attack. By 4th July, 1999, the tricolour was back at the top of Tiger Hill. News sent waves of jubilation across India.

The second big battle was that of Point 4875. This battle was important in the war because of the peak’s strategic location in the Dras region, from which any activity on the Srinagar-Leh Highway could be monitored. Pakistani troops had covertly occupied the height. Upon detection, the Indian military launched an attack, ultimately recapturing the point.

Combat was also raging in Batalik, Kaksar, and Mushkoh. Again, Indian forces were forced to climb hills, often straight into the enemy’s line of fire, to recapture posts inch by inch. In Turtuk’s sector along the Nubra Valley, the army repelled Pakistani intrusions towards Siachen. The second key victory was at Sando Top, a summit that gave an uninterrupted view of the Dras sector and was crucial to the overall strategy of India.

India evicted Pakistani intruders and reclaimed every inch

After nearly three months of fierce fighting, the Indian Army successfully repelled all the infiltrators. On 26th July, 1999, the government officially declared that all occupied posts had been regained. It has been celebrated on this date ever since.

But the cost of that victory was heavy. Approximately 527 Indian soldiers lost their lives, and over 1,300 soldiers were wounded during the conflict. Two Indian MiG-21s, one MiG-27, and one Mi-17 helicopter were shot down while several artillery pieces and other military equipment were damaged or destroyed in the Kargil war.

On the other hand, the Pakistani military lost around 700-1,000 soldiers. The exact number of wounded Pakistani soldiers is not precisely known but is believed to be substantial. And even though their claims of “freedom fighters” being included were made, it was clear that this was a Pakistan Army operation from the start.

Even Pakistan’s authorities admitted as much later. Major General (Retd) Abdul Majeed Malik characterised the Kargil war as a “total disaster.” The then-Pakistani Navy Chief even demanded that General Musharraf be court-martialled for his suicidal venture.

The Kargil War made several things change. It exposed the necessity for utmost vigilance even during times of peace. It confirmed the requirement for improved intelligence and surveillance. It also demonstrated that the Indian Army had enough ability to achieve the most difficult tasks, however improbable they may have been.

Even after 26 years, the acts of bravery in those hills make us get goosebumps even today. The faces of martyrs like Capt Vikram Batra, Lt Manoj Pandey, and several others remain not just in books and statues, but in every Indian’s heart.

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