The Kargil Conflict

Soldiers of Pakistani army on leave, aided by tribesmen of NWFP, led by Pakistani army officers attacked Kashmir on 22 October 1947, along the Jhelum valley road. The chief of operations was Major-General Akbar Khan of the Pakistan army using the pseudonym General Tariq. ^[1]. There objective was to celebrate Id on October 26 at Srinagar, with Jinnah riding in triumph into the capital of Kashmir. The undefended city of Domel was the first to fall. Brigadier Rajendra Singh, Chief of Staff of Kashmir State, organized a force of 150 men at Garhi and checked the advance of Pakistani army. By 26 October Pakistani army had only managed to reach Baramulla instead of Srinagar. Pakistani troops committed horrendous crimes against Hindus and Europeans living in the valley. Robert Trumbull, of New York Times sent this dispatch, published on 10 November:

The city had been stripped of its wealth and young women before the Pakistanis fled in terror, at midnight friday, before the advancing Indian army. Surviving residents estimate that 3000 of there townsmen including four Europeans and a retired British army officer, Colonel Dykes, and his pregnant wife were slain. St Joseph Franciscan Convent and the convent hospital was stormed and four nuns were shot.

Pakistan kept insisting that it was not involved but foreign journalists quickly exposed there lie. Alan Moorehead of the Observer (London) reported that recruitment for the invasion had been going on not only in NWFP but all of Pakistan^[2]. Trumbull secretly interviewed American mercenary, Russell K. Haight Jr. who fought along with Pakistanis^[2].:

Mr Haight also found Pakistan army personnel running the Azad Kashmir radio station, relaying messages through there own Pakistan army receivers, organizing and managing Azad encampments in Pakistan, and supplying uniforms, food, arms and ammunition which, he understood, came from Pakistan army stores through such subterfuges as the 'loss' of ammunition shipments..Mr Haight charaterized the Azad Kashmir provisional government, headed by Sardar Mohammed Ibrahim Khan, as 'Pakistan puppets'. He also deeply implicated Pakistan government officials, notable the Premier of the NWFP.

Evidence emerged from within Pakistan itself, Michael Brecher quotes an appeal made by the Minister of Health for Sind:

to all trained and demobilized soldiers to proceed as volunteers to the Kashmir front.^[3].

British officers and officials working in Pakistan had got wind of the impending invasion some time before it happened. A letter Sir George Cunningham, governor of the NWFP, wrote to General R.M.M Lockhart, Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, before the attack ended with the postscript:

Some people up here have been acting very foolishly. You will know what I mean by the time this letter reaches you.

General Frank Messervy, Commander-in-Chief in Pakistan, formally advised Liaqat against such adventurism, and repeated his advice before flying to London on work.

Indian Government launched Operation JAK to defeat the Pakistan army. V.P.Menon wrote:

Never in the history of warfare has there been an operation like the airlift of Indian troops to Srinagar on 27 October and on subsequent days, an operation put through with no previous thought, let alone organized planning, and at such remarkably short notice... In the early hours of morning of 27 October over a hundred civillian aircraft and R.I.A.F (Royal Indian Air Force) planes were mobilised to fly troops, equipment and supplies to Srinagar. The R.I.A.F and civillian pilots and ground crews rose to the occasion and worked heroically to make the airlift a success.

Lord Mountbatten wrote:

in all his war experience he had never heard of an airlift of this nature being put into operation at such a short notice and he complimented all concerned on the astonishing performance.

When Jinnah learnt that Indian troops had reached Srinagar, he ordered Sir Francis Mudie, Governor of Punjab, to phone General Sir Douglas Gracey, acting chief in absence of General Douglas Messervey, to send Pakistan army into Kashmir via the Banihal pass and Rawalpindi Srinagar route. Gracey refused to take orders from Jinnah and told him that he would need orders from Field Marshall Auchinleck, the Supreme Commander. Auchinleck told Jinnah on 28 October that Kashmir was legally part of India and sending the Pakistan army would amount to a formal declaration of war. And if Pakistan went to war, Auchinleck said, he would withdraw every British officer serving in the Pakistan army. Jinnah was stumped^[2].

By morning of 8 November Major General Kalwant Singh and Brigadier L.P.Sen had reached Shalteng the stronghold of Pakistani army and showed them what war was all about. Battle lasted eight hours and the Pakistanis were routed. They left 300 dead behind. Soon winter snow helped Pakistanis as Indian army could not advance any further. Next spring and summer Indian army had major successes and Pakistan gave up its pretencce and formally entered war. Major-General K.S.Thimmaya, who succeeded Kalwant Singh, was confident--and he would nurse this complaint all through his life--that he would have taken Muzaffarabad had he not been stopped by the politicians^[2].

The chief of operations was Major-General Akbar Khan of the Pakistan army using the pseudonym General Tariq. ^{[1]. There objective was to celebrate Id on October 26 at Srinagar, with Jinnah riding in triumph into the capital of Kashmir. The undefended city of Domel was the first to fall. Brigadier Rajendra Singh, Chief of Staff of Kashmir State, organized a force of 150 men at Garhi and checked the advance of Pakistani army. By 26 October Pakistani army had only managed to reach Baramulla instead of Srinagar. Pakistani troops committed horrendous crimes against Hindus and Europeans living in the valley. Robert Trumbull, of New York Times sent this dispatch, published on 10 November:}