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NEW DELHI: An Indian general, who commanded troops during 1999 Kargil war, on Sunday broke his 11-year silence to say that India actually lost the war in strategic terms.
Lieutenant-General (r) Kishan Pal, the then head of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, told a private channel that he did not speak because he was never convinced about this war.
We did gain some tactical victories, we regained the territories, but lost 587 precious lives. I consider this loss of war because whatever we gained from the war has not been consolidated, either politically or diplomatically. It has not been consolidated militarily, he said, when was asked for his assessment of the conflict 11 years later.
Gen Pal was recently in a controversy involving the battle performance report of one of his juniors, Brigadier Devinder Singh. An armed forces tribunal has indicted Pal for showing bias against Brigadier Singh; former 70 infantry brigade commander, and belittled his achievements in the war besides falsifying accounts of battles during the Kargil operations.
Meanwhile, a Chandigarh-based former army major has also come out with a revelation that his inputs on Kargil intrusion, sent to his seniors as early as January-February 1999, were ignored and he was asked to stop sending such reports in writing.
Major Manish Bhatnagar, who participated in the Kargil war, said not only were his inputs ignored, later, when a full-scale conflict broke out, he was court martialled on another pretext and made to leave the army.
He said he had informed his senior officers about the heavy presence of hostile forces and had also apprised them of the large number of bunkers and occupation of vital points by them during his posting. Later, when the strength of intruders was found to be more than the perceptions of the top generals resulting in mass causalities of soldiers officers like me were persecuted to hide their wrongs, Bhatnagar said.
Pakistan News Service - PakTribune
Lieutenant-General (r) Kishan Pal, the then head of Srinagar-based 15 Corps, told a private channel that he did not speak because he was never convinced about this war.
We did gain some tactical victories, we regained the territories, but lost 587 precious lives. I consider this loss of war because whatever we gained from the war has not been consolidated, either politically or diplomatically. It has not been consolidated militarily, he said, when was asked for his assessment of the conflict 11 years later.
Gen Pal was recently in a controversy involving the battle performance report of one of his juniors, Brigadier Devinder Singh. An armed forces tribunal has indicted Pal for showing bias against Brigadier Singh; former 70 infantry brigade commander, and belittled his achievements in the war besides falsifying accounts of battles during the Kargil operations.
Meanwhile, a Chandigarh-based former army major has also come out with a revelation that his inputs on Kargil intrusion, sent to his seniors as early as January-February 1999, were ignored and he was asked to stop sending such reports in writing.
Major Manish Bhatnagar, who participated in the Kargil war, said not only were his inputs ignored, later, when a full-scale conflict broke out, he was court martialled on another pretext and made to leave the army.
He said he had informed his senior officers about the heavy presence of hostile forces and had also apprised them of the large number of bunkers and occupation of vital points by them during his posting. Later, when the strength of intruders was found to be more than the perceptions of the top generals resulting in mass causalities of soldiers officers like me were persecuted to hide their wrongs, Bhatnagar said.
Pakistan News Service - PakTribune
