July 4th 1999 - The Day Clinton stopped a Nuclear War ( Kargil War)

The Kargil war was faught between India in Pakistan between May 3rd 1999 - July 26th 1999. The Kargil war was planned by then Pakistani Chieg of Army Pervez Musharaff and his 4 senior Commanders without informing the Pakistani Civilian Govt. The basic idea was to infiltrate the Dras, Kaksar, and Mushkoh sectors in kargil(Kashmir) during the winter season when both militaries would usually pull out from the high mountainous military outposts due to the cold weather. The operation was apparently launched apparently in retaliation to Operation Meghdood in 1984 when India successfully occupied the Siachin Glacier, the most important and strategic real estate in Kashmir.

The Incursion was first spotted by local Sheppards on May 3rd 1999. Two days later an Indian patrol was sent to investigate the site of the incursion 5 of the Soldiers were reported Captured as per Indian sources they were tortured to death. Indian Military soon started mobilising and troops stationed in Kashmir valley to the Kargil Sector. By May 26th IAF started sorties against the intruders.

Pakistan Initially had denied reports of any infiltration by its army and instead reported they were miliants who had intruded from Pakistani side of Kashmir.On june 5th Indian military got documents from 3 pakistani soldiers as evidence as their involvement in Kashmir. Further on June 11nth Indian intelligence intercepted and relased phone conversations From Gen Pervez Musharaff who was in China talking to one of his officers Lt. Gen Aziz Khan in Rawalpindi

Recorded conversation Below

Pak: Lt Gen Mohd Aziz, Chief of General Staff
China: Gen Parvez Musharraf, Chief of Army Staff

P: How is the visit going?
C: Yes, very well, Okay. And, what else is the news on that side?
P: Ham-dul-ullah. There is no change on the ground situation. They have started rocketing and straffing. That has been upgraded a little. It has happened yesterday also and today. Today high altitude bombing has been done.

C: On their side, in those positions?
P: In those positions, but in today's bombing about three bombs landed on our side of the Line of control. No damage, Sir.

C: Is it quite a lot?
P: Sir, about 12-13 bombs were dropped, from which three fell on our side, which does not appear to be a result of inaccuracy. In my interpretation, it is a sort of giving of a message that if need be, we can do it on the other side as well. It is quite distance apart. Where the bombs have been dropped, they have tried to drop from a good position where they are in difficulty, from behind the LoC but they have fallen on our side of the LoC. So I have spoken to the Foreign Secretary and I have told him that he should make the appropriate noises about this in the Press.

C: They (Indians) should also be told.
P: That we have told, Foreign Secretary will also say and Rashid will also say. He will not, generally speaking, make any such mistake about those other bombs falling on the other side, our stand should be that all these bombs are falling on our side. We will not come into that situation. The guideline that they have given, we have stressed that we should say that this build-up and employment of air strike which has been done under the garb of....us (?), actually they are targetting our position on the LoC and our logistic build-up, these possibly they are taking under the garb having intention for operation the craft (?) Line of Control, and this need to be taken note of and we would retaliate in kind.... is what happened? So, the entire build-up we want to give this colour.

C: Absolutely okay. Yes, this is better. After that, has there been any talk with them? Any meetings etc?
P: Yeserday, again, in the evening.

C: Who all were there?
P: Actually, we insisted that a meeting should be held, because otherwise that friend of ours, the incumbent of my old chair, we thought lest he give some interpretation of his own, we should do something ourselves by going there.

C: Was he little disturbed. I heard that there was some trouble in Sialkot.
P: Yes, There was one in Daska. On this issue there was trouble. Yes, he was little disturbed about that but I told him that such small things keep happening and we can reply to such things in a better way.
C: Absolutely.

P: There is no such thing to worry.
C: So that briefing to Mian Seheb that we did, was the forum the same as where we had done previously? There, at Jamshed's place?
P: No. In Mian Saheb's office.
C: Oh I see. There. What was he saying?
P: From here we had gone -- Choudhary Zafar Saheb, Mehmood, myself & Tauqir. Because before going, Tauqir had spoken with his counterpart. We carried that tape with us.

C: So, what was he (Indian counterpart) saying?
P: That is very interesting. When you come, I will play it for you. Its focus was that these infiltrators, who are sitting here, they have your help and artillery support, without which they could not have come to J&K. This is not a very friendly act and it is against the spirit of the Lahore Declaration. Then Tauqir told him that if your boys tried to physically attack the Line of Control and go beyond it....and that the bombs were planted on the Turtok bridge and the dead body received in the process was returned with military honours and I said, I thought that there wan good enough indication you would not enter into this type of misadventure, and all this build-up that you are doing --- one or more brigade strength and 50-60 aircraft are being collected. These are excuses for undertaking some operations against the verious spaces, so I had put him on the defensive. Then he said the same old story. He would put three points again and again that they (militants) should not be supported, and without your support they could not be there, they have sophisticated weapons and we will flush them out, we will not let them stay there. But this is not a friendly act.

C: So, did they talk of coming out and meeting somewhere?
P: No, No, they did not.

C: Was there some other talk of putting pressure on us?
P: No. He only said that they (militants) will be given suitable reception. This term he used. He said they will be flushed out, and everytime Tauqir said that please tell us some detail, detail about how many have gone into your area, what is happening there? Then I will ask the concerned people and then we will get back to you. So whenever he asked these details, he would say, we will talk about this when we meet, then I will give details. This means, they are possibly looking forward to the next round of talks, in which the two sides could meet. This could be the next round of talks between the two PMs which they are expecting it....Sir, very good thing, no problem...
C: So, many times we had discussed, taken your (PM's?..) blessings and yesterday also I told him that the door of discussion, dialogue must be kept open & rest, no change in ground situation.

P: So, no one was in a particularly disturbed, frame of mind.
C: Even your seat man?
P: Yes, he was disturbed. Also, Malik Saheb was disturbed, as they had been even earlier. Those two's views were that the status quo & the present postion of Gen Hassan (?) no change should be recommended in that. But he was also saying that any escalation after that should be regulated as there may be the danger of war. On this logic, we gave the suggestion that there was no such fear as the scr

The Pakistan army had sent troops from the elite Special Services Group as well as four to seven battalions of the Northern Light Infantry (a paramilitary regiment not part of the regular Pakistani army at that time) covertly and overtly set up bases on the vantage points of the Indian-controlled region. According to some reports, these Pakistani forces were backed by Kashmiri guerrillas and Afghan mercenaries.

An Indian national highway (NH 1D) connecting Srinagar to Leh cuts through Kargil. The military outposts on the ridges above the highway were generally around 5,000 metres (16,000 ft) high, with a few as high as 5,485 metres (18,000 ft). Capturing Kargil would mean cutting the supply lines to Siachin forcing India to Evacuate the Siachin Glacier.

Kargil was targeted partly because the terrain was vulnurable to the preemptive seizure of several unoccupied military positions.With tactically vital features and well-prepared defensive posts atop the peaks, a defender on the high ground would enjoy advantages akin to a fortress. Any attack to dislodge a defender from high ground in mountain warfare requires a far higher ratio of attackers to defenders, and the difficulties would be exacerbated by the high altitude and freezing temperatures.

The Indian army responded with mobilizing 2,00,000 troops, but due to the kind of terrain division and corps level operations could not be carried out so the operations were mostly carried out by regimental or Battalion level. The IAF also launched bombing campaigns with initially getting little success even loosing two aircrafts,1 mig-29(technical fault) and 1 Mig-21. but as time went the IAF became extremely successfull with Mirage 2000 providing Recon and Mig-29s providing Air support and in several instances even locked onto Pakistani F-16s. Isreal also helped India by supplying India with Laser guided bombs



Below is Video of Pakistani Bunker being destroyed



ON june 15nth Clinton called Pakistani PM Nawaz Shariff and asked him to withdraw the troops from Kargil. Later that Month by June 26th Indian army recaptures point 5060 and point 5100 near Tiger Hill. Tiger Hill was important because it was the highest peak in the sector. The Pakistani forces who held the peak could easily see the military headquarters of the 56 Brigade, the main Indian force in charge of the area. The Point 5353 overlooks the National Highway 1D (India), a strategic root way to Siachen Glacier and connects Srinagar to Leh in Ladakh which enabled the Pakistanis to watch the Srinagar-Leh Highway, the main supply route of the Kargil Sector, and relay information of troop and supply movements to their superiors. They can easily direct fire on a 25 km stretch of the national highway.

On july 4th India started the offensive into Tiger Hill and after a 11 hour Battle Tiger HIll was retaken. By jully 11nth Dras sector was under control and Shariff Ordered a withdrawal of the Pakistan Army from Kargil

Nuclear blunder

www.japantimes.co.jp...

During the Kargil crisis of May-July 1999, Musharraf, who was then army chief, “wanted to deploy Ghauri missiles(Nuclear Capable), but air went out of his balloon when the top general in charge of the missile program told him the missile had a faulty guidance systems.Over a year earlier, on April 6, 1998, Pakistan had carried out what it described as a successful first test of the intermediate-range ballistic missile, developed by Khan Research Laboratory with North Korean assistance.Even Musharraf, who witnessed that Ghauri launch as a local corps commander, had been led to believe it was a success then, according to the nuclear scientist, who until recently had long been closely associated with the country’s nuclear and missile programs.

Aaannndddd the day he sold us out and ruined the country with NAFTA

a reply to: maddy21

I saw very little in that recorded conversation that a nuclear war was about to commence. And that would be a nuclear war over some extremely remote territory where no infrastructure damage was lost and only a handful of lives? No. Don't buy it. I suspect the intent of dredging this story up and puffing it up is to simply related to rebuilding the increasingly tarnished Clinton legacy.

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: maddy21

I saw very little in that recorded conversation that a nuclear war was about to commence. And that would be a nuclear war over some extremely remote territory where no infrastructure damage was lost and only a handful of lives? No. Don't buy it. I suspect the intent of dredging this story up and puffing it up is to simply related to rebuilding the increasingly tarnished Clinton legacy.

Not really, Pakistan had moved in Ghauri nuclear capable tipped missiles and had deployed them. IT was then the chief of army found out that the Ballistic Missile had a faulty guidance system. But the information is accurate. Weather Clinton stopped it or not is questionable