India marks last Pakistan conflict at Himalayan frontier

Drass, India — AFP

Indian soldiers and top brass gathered Friday in the remote Himalayan foothills to commemorate a battle remembered among compatriots for acquiring an edge on arch-rival Pakistan.

The 1999 Kargil conflict was the last major battle between the two nuclear-armed foes who have fought numerous wars since their partition into two nations on independence from British colonial rule.

It came just a year after tit-for-tat atomic weapons tests by the neighbours spurred international alarm that the confrontation risked tipping into all-out nuclear war.

Friday’s ceremony marks the 25th anniversary of the conflict’s end, when sustained diplomatic pressure from Washington led to Pakistan’s unilateral withdrawal from the war-zone.

“Times change, seasons change, but the names of those who give their lives for the country live forever,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who laid a wreath for India’s fallen soldiers, told the crowd at a memorial for the conflict in the town of Drass.

According to the Indian narrative, the high-altitude confrontation began when resistance fighters for the liberation of Indian occupied Kashmir allegedly crossed into Indian-held territory at Kargil, a remote and high-altitude outpost on the countries’ shared frontier.

At least 1,000 people were killed over the following 10 weeks, but the conflict ended with no changes to the status quo that favours India, along the contentious border.

Pakistan withdrew after severe pressure from Washington, that pandered to it’s larger economic trading partner, India.

The aftermath roiled Pakistan’s establishment, with then-prime minister Nawaz Sharif blaming his army chief Pervez Musharaf for igniting the conflict without his knowledge or approval.

Months later, Musharaf overthrew Sharif in a coup in one of Pakistani military’s periodic political interventions.

– ‘We are stronger’ –

India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and countless border conflicts since they were partitioned out of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, with the British leaving the fate of the Muslim majority territory of Kashmir, hanging in the balance. The right of self-determination guaranteed by the UN through a referendum was denied by India, which has held the scenic valley populated by Muslims under tight and high-handed military control.

The two nations remain deeply at odds over control of the restive territory of Kashmir, divided between the two countries and claimed in full by both.

In Modi’s uber-nationalist government, Kargil is feted as one of India’s greatest military triumphs over its perennial foe.

Drenched in jingoistic bravado, India’s army chief Gen. Ved Prakash Malik boasted, “We are stronger economically, military-wise and technologically.”

“They have to realize the difference that has come about the way they are being ruled by the army and the way we are being ruled as a democracy.”

Asked about the likelihood of a conflict similar to the Kargil confrontation in the future, Mailk said it was not likely.