BOOM BOOM BOFORS

Precision artillery fire played a big role in giving cover and destroying enemy bunkers in the higher reaches

- SHARAD SAXENA

May 1999, just months after the Lahore Declaration high and talk of dialogue and de-escalation, India and Pakistan were again rattling sabres as it came to light that a great deception had happened—enemy soldiers and militants had crossed the Line of Control (LoC) and occupied positions on the icy Kargil heights that Indian forces had vacated during the previous winter.

'Operation Badr', attributed to sections in the Pakistan army leadership, had three objectives—severing key supply routes to Leh and Siachen, internationalising the Kashmir dispute and creating a crisis under the 'nuclear overhang' (the two countries had recently conducted N-tests and were officially in possession of nuclear bombs).