— Indian troops fought Pakistani-backed intruders at close range Tuesday in the heaviest combat since New Delhi launched its air force last week to recapture a mountain ridge in Kashmir. • The intensified fighting came less than 24 hours after Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee agreed to meet Pakistans foreign minister for peace talks. No date for the meeting has been set. • Military commanders said the fighting raged through the night around the 15,100-foot Tololing peak, a crucial stronghold for Muslim guerrillas. • The guerrillas seized strategic mountain positions in the Indian-held part of Kashmir last month after an apparent Indian intelligence lapse that allowed them to occupy high-altitude positions the Indian army vacates at the start of winter and reoccupies in late spring. • Six days of Indian air raids--during which Indias air force lost two fighter planes and a helicopter gunship--have apparently failed to dislodge the 400 to 600 invaders. Indias army has now begun the arduous task of flushing them out of their snow-covered mountain strongholds. • A military spokesman said Indian soldiers were fighting their way foot by foot toward the rock-and-concrete bunkers where the invaders have hunkered down in strategic positions well above the approaching Indian force. Sometimes they blaze away at each other no more than 10 feet apart, with nothing but a rock face between them, said a senior Indian military officer. Military officials said their plan was to encircle the invaders and starve them out by cutting off their supply lines. This, however, could take months. While soldiers fought in the snow at high altitude, Indian and Pakistani artillery in the valleys below shelled each others positions along the cease-fire line that divides Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani territory. Thousands of villagers in the Himalayan region have fled after their homes were fired upon. On Tuesday, Pakistans Information Ministry reported an Indian shell slammed into a high school in the Pakistani village of Nagdar, 70 miles from the fighting, killing 10 students. Six people were also reported killed on the Indian side when a shell hit a government building Monday. In the accompanying war of words, Pakistans army said it had repulsed three attacks by Indian troops along the disputed border, inflicting heavy casualties. India denied its troops had tried to cross the border. Meanwhile, the guerrillas have proved to be tougher than Indias military bargained for. So far, India says it has lost 34 soldiers, with 12 more missing and presumed captured. That is about half as many casualties as the total in the 12-day war over Kashmir in 1971. Then, 73 Indian soldiers were killed. FPRIVATE TYPE=PICT;ALT= But India says its troops have killed several hundred terrorists, the Indian term for Kashmiri and Pathan tribesmen fighting for mainly Muslim Kashmirs union with Pakistan. Despite the rhetoric, the battle over the ice-bound, uninhabited Kargil Heights threatens to become the catalyst for a new conflict between the two new nuclear powers. Both have already fought two wars over disputed Kashmir and are now armed with nuclear devices--even though Western military experts doubt either side has adequate delivery systems. This week Pakistan warned that it would spare no weapon in our arsenal to repel an Indian offensive against Kashmir. India has repeatedly said its armed forces will use every effort to dislodge the intruders dug in along the strategic ridge on the Indian side of the cease-fire line. If the guerrillas can maintain these positions, it would bring some 77 square miles of Indian-held Kashmir under Pakistans control. Indias Vajpayee accused Pakistan on Tuesday of trying to change the borders of the Line of Control. India is adamant the guerrillas must be removed. It is only a matter of time that we will be able to remove them from these areas, said Defense Minister George Fernandes. Informed military sources, however, said it could take months to capture the estimated 12 mountaintop positions. Pakistan says the invaders are tribesmen fighting for freedom in Kashmir. But Indian military officials say the invaders are well-armed with mortars, surface-to-air missiles and high-altitude combat gear. New Delhi alleges they are armed by Pakistan. Pakistan said Indias massive buildup of troops in Kashmir is disproportionate to its official intention to chase out just a couple of hundred intruders. Indian officials argue the incursion into the Kargil Heights, a project they say required months of planning and preparation, was part of a Pakistani plan to bring the Kashmir crisis to the attention of the United Nations Security Council. Pakistan wants a plebiscite in mainly Muslim Kashmir. India, perhaps fearful of the outcome, wants to maintain the status quo.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Nov 2014 08:26:49 +0000
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