Kargil 25 years: Pervez Musharraf’s audacious night stay across LoC

It was for the first time that a Pakistan Army chief addressed his troops in Indian territory. On March 28, 1999, during the build-up to Kargil war, late Gen Pervez Musharraf's entourage flew 2-3 km across the LoC in Lama helicopters to land in a 500-metre-long snow bowl which served as an administrative and logistics base for the 12 Northern Light Infantry’s (NLI) intrusion across the Mashkoh LoC.
An excited Musharraf spent the night at the forward incursion base, congratulated the troops for having avenged India’s Siachen operation of 1984, took an aerial recce of the Pakistani intrusions in the sector, and distributed Pakistani Rs 8,000 to the troops. The Kargil intrusions were last month criticised by former Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif, who admitted that they amounted to a betrayal of the Lahore Agreement signed with the then PM, Atal B Vajpayee, in Feb 1999.
Significantly, Musharraf had absented himself from the 1999 Lahore Agreement proceedings as the Pakistan Army had already commenced intrusions. The Musharraf foray across the LoC took the Kargil incursions to the zenith of audacity.
The foray was recorded in a diary maintained by a Pakistani captain deployed at the intrusion base. The Kargil Review Committee report as well as former Chief of Army Staff Gen VP Malik’s book (Kargil: From Surprise to Victory) record the fact of Musharraf ’s personal intrusion across the LoC.
“As per the captured diary of Capt Hussain Ahmad of the 12 NLI, his reconnaissance and firm base patrol entered the Kargil sector in Feb 1999. Musharraf visited the officer's patrol base on 28 March 1999, five weeks after the signing of the Lahore Declaration, and gave Rs 8,000 ‘for sweets’ to be distributed amongst 12 NLI personnel,” wrote Malik.
The precise location of the base visited by Musharraf was identified by Mohali-based Col APS Cheema (retd), who commanded the 12 Mahar during the battles against 12 NLI in May-July 1999. The base was 2-3 km across LoC as the crow flies, as assessed by Cheema, and had half-a-dozen fibre-glass igloos. “The base was situated southeast of the Gultari nallah and it supplied the enemy intrusions till Tiger Hill.
To the south-east of this base lay Point 4388 and to its east lay the features, Points 5368 and 5070. My battalion recovered the diary of Ahmad from this base. I read the diary and apart from recording the Musharraf visit, it had meticulous entries, recording even Women’s Day, avalanche deaths of NLI troops and the telephone numbers of the Captain’s relatives back in Pakistan.
The diary revealed that the Captain was due for a posting to the Pakistan Command and Staff College, Quetta,” Cheema told TOI. Musharraf himself admitted his foray across the LOC to an Indian TV channel when he stated: “When Kargil was happening, I went across border, I landed in Hindustan, I stepped there in the mountains of Hindustan and stood there.”
The audacious foray drew comment from former COAS Gen V K Singh, who told the media: “I would commend Musharraf for coming to stay with his troops for a night. It is the courage of a military commander that he came so far knowing that there was danger. What was happening on our side you all know and facts are before you. Why did we allow him to go? Why did we allow them to enter? I would only say that there were some mistakes, which need to be rectified.”
A detailed account of the Musharraf foray was recorded in the book, ‘Witness to Blunder’, authored by Musharraf's then ISPR aide, Col Ashfaq Hussain (retd). A bevy of senior Pakistani officers crossed the LoC in helicopters to inspect the intrusions and speak to forward officers before these were detected in May 1999.
They included the ‘clique of four Generals’ led by Musharraf who planned and executed the top-secret operation code-named, Op Koh-ePaima (Climber of Mountains). H u s s a i n ’ s book states: “Zakria base (Point 125) was established by Maj.
Zakria Yousaf Raja and was 3.5 km across LOC....On March 13, 1999, Commander, FCNA, Maj Gen Javed Hassan visited 12 NLI at Point 125...On March 26, Hassan paid a second visit accompanied by commanders of 80 and 323 Brigades, Division Artillery Commander and GSO-1 Ops FCNA.
On March 28, Musharraf (flew from Gultari to the base) accompanied by Commander 10 Corps, Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmed, Chief of General Staff (at GHQ) Lt Gen Aziz Khan, Hassan, Personal Secretary to the COAS and GSO-1 FCNA...They landed at Point 125 at 10.40 am and were received by the 12 NLI CO, Lt Col Amjad Shabbir, 2IC and Adjutant.” “While addressing the (12 NLI) troops there, Musharraf said, ‘We would strike a blow at the enemy that she would never forget.’
He congratulated the troops... promised that a Battle Honour and Nishan (Pakistani flag) would be conferred on the battalion soon after the operations...He was very excited and decided to stay the night there. Next day was Eid-ul-Azha and it was celebrated by the COAS and other senior officers across the LoC with 12 NLI troops,” wrote Hussain.
The VVIP importance of the Zakria base was revealed after 12 Mahar conquered it in July 1999 and effected recoveries of the revealing Ahmad diary and humungous war stores, even though a lot had been taken back by the retreating Pakistani troops.
“There were tents / igloos at this base, which were destroyed in the battle. My troops recovered five bases of howitzers (artillery guns), 800 bombs of the 120 / 81 mm mortars, 396 hand grenades, 60 RPG rounds, 32 rockets, 1,909 anti-personnel mines, 14,346 rounds of G3 rifle, 42,339 rounds of machine guns, one flamethrower, five rocket-missile launchers, 10 gas masks, 10 steel girders of 12 feet each for construction, and 75 punctured barrels of aviation turbine fuel (ATF),” Cheema told TOI