Former Lahore corps commander Lt General (r) Shahid Aziz has said that the Kargil war with India was an “unsound military plan based on invalid assumptions, launched with little preparations and in total disregard to the regional and international environment”.
In an op-ed in a local English daily, the former general said the Kargil adventure was “bound to fail”.
He said former army chief Pervez Musharraf put a tight lid over the programme and the very reason for such a calling must have been because the mission was a “total disaster”.
Gen (r) Musharraf even put on hold a study commenced by GHQ to identify issues of concern at the lowest levels of command three years after the Kargil fiasco.
“It certainly wasn’t a defensive manoeuvre. There were no indications of an Indian attack. We didn’t pre-empt anything; nothing was on the cards. I was then heading the Analysis Wing of Inter-Services Intelligence and it was my job to know. Our clearly expressed intent was to cut the supply line to Siachen and force the Indians to pull out,” the former general said in his op-ed piece.
“This was not a small result we sought and cannot be classified as a tactical manoeuvre, where no one other than the local commander needed to be aware,” he said.
“The entire planning and execution was done in a cavalier manner, in total disregard of military convention. In justification, to say that our assessment was not wrong, but there was, ‘unreasonably escalated Indian response’ is a sorry excuse for not being able to assess Indian reaction. Assumptions were made that they would not be able to dislodge us and the world would sit back idly.”
Aziz said Pakistani soldiers were made to occupy barren ridges, with hand held weapons and ammunition.
“There was no way to dig in, so they were told to make parapets with lose stones and sit behind them, with no overhead protection. The boys were comforted by their commander’s assessment that no serious response would come. But it did — wave after wave, supported by massive air bursting artillery and repeated air attacks. The enemy still couldn’t manage to capture the peaks, and instead filled in the valleys. Cut off and forsaken, our posts started collapsing one after the other, though the general publicly denied it.”
The former corps commander added that the operation never had the capacity to choke Siachen, adding that the country needlessly continued to indulge in bloody enterprises under the hoax of safeguarding national interest.
Bravo General Aziz. It is time that the Military Generals stood up against the stupidities like the Siachen attack, which was unwarranted, uncalled for, an offensive not a defensive move resulting in a disaster.
Musharraf set normalization of relations with India back by thirty years, otherwise by now, Pakistan economy would have benifited from India's boom and trade levels would have increased tremendously. Alas, one man's stupidity and the nation suffers.
Musharraf was a wicked man of mediocre capability, who was very ambitious and greedy. He has harmed this country and brought into disrepute the army by his immoral activities.
I agree with Mr Malik's comments, but would like to add that not only Mosharraf but all 3 othe usurper Military Generals were like him and had done great harm to the country. Therefore, I am very happy that T Qadri's Long March, seem to have buried the chances of a 5th one.
Pak army has always been proving that execution of a strategy was their inborn weakness. An Indian General would have thrown all his resources to hold on to the captured territory. Look at what is being done in Siachen. See the history of 1971; 1965. Pak officers seem to lack the ability to take a battle forward. Good news for india.
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