"FIRE" MUSCLE POWER

Artillery played a pivotal role in kargil war. Even it was outnumbered by the Indian artillery, the brave gunners of Pakistan Army did more than their best to provide fire power to those who were fighting beyond LOC.

The toughest task was to shift the artillery in the battle field area. This was carried out by MI-17 helicopters. All the guns were opened into parts and then were carried by sling load in the main battle field areas of Dawod Tactical Headquarter, Giltri, Foreign Short and Kinaar naala.

130 MM Guns were the heaviest. One barrel of this gun weighed 2000kg, one tire weighed 450kg. It took 8 rounds of one MI-17 to shift one single 130 MM artillery gun. The flight routine of these helicopter squadrons which were enough for 2 years, were consumed in three months.

61 gun positions were established, and 44 observatory posts were made to control their fire power. This was not enough. Moreover, no arrangements were made for the maintenance and repair of damage of these guns. Although mechanics were there from workshop 502, but they were useless since they didn’t have necessary tools. Once a gun went silent, it remained silent!

Pakistan didn’t have numerical advantage on India in northern areas when it came to artillery. Despite of that, FCNA started operation beyond LOC without asking for more artillery support. Guns which We had, majority of which were field guns, didn’t have enough fire power to help and support the soldiers fighting beyond LOC. After the war started, India’s artillery absolutely bamboozled the captured posts by Pakistan, and when the posts asked for fire from their arsenal, there was no reply!

And here is a turn point... The Bofors

 

The Bofors gun gave India edge over Pakistani medium guns. With a range of over 35 kilo meters in the high-altitude terrain, the FH77 Bofors guns, which fired three rounds in 12 seconds proved to be better than the medium artillery guns available with the Pakistani Army.

The guns have a Mercedes Benz engine in them and they are able to move short distances on their own. This capability helped India during the war also as guns would move from their location after firing a salvo to other positions in order to avoid enemy counter fire.

Following is a comparison of the artillery power between India and Pakistan, before and after the war started.

http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/why-the-army-loves-the-bofors-gun-5580

Gentleman Istighfirullah by Colonel® Ishfaq Hussain

https://www.google.com/fusiontables/data?docid=1XagL2QRQNZTazufXi7QpL2pzDzhKY7VNdQwFQyFe#card:id=2

KARGIL BRIEFED .. FINALLY!

And at last, army told it to the Government.

It was 17^th may 1999, when kargil adventure was first brought into the notice of Pakistani government via a briefing by army in ISI office of Ojhri camp. It was done on account of several queries raised by the then secretary defence, lieutenant general (r) Iftikhar Ali Khan. And how did he come to know about this long before started adventure? You may say... LUCK!

He came to know it on 5^th may 1999 and that also from an external source i.e. a foreign journal. The foreign journal reported skirmishes in the highest battle field of the world. He immediately contacted DGMO Major General Tauqeer Zia, got a cold reply

‘Sir, such skirmishes are a usual routine’.

Obviously Gen Iftikhar was not going to buy that.

Meanwhile, PM Wajpai called up PM Sharif, and told him that He has been stabbed at the back. Do remember the diplomatic relations between India and Pakistan were on very good terms those days, the bus service, exchange of prisoners and Wajpai’s statements on resolving the Kashmir issue were one of their kinds in recent years. But as soon as Wajpai told Nawaz what was done backstage, there was the beginning of chaos.

2 days later after Wajpai’s contact with Sharif, a briefing was setup by army in which government was for the first time told about kargil adventure.

From the government side, PM Nawaz Sharif, secretary defence lieutenant general (r) Iftikhar Ali Khan, exterior minister Sertaj Aziz, and federal minister lieutenant general (r) majeed malik, secretary external affairs Shamshad Ali Khan and PM’s principle secretary Saaed Mehdi were invited for the briefing.

On the other side, along with chief of army staff sat chief of general staff General Aziz Khan, commander 10^th core lieutenant general Mehmood Ahmed, DGMO Major General Tauqir Zia, Commander FCNA Major General Javaid Hasan and from ISI, Major General Jamshaid Gulzar Kiani.

DGMO briefed that Pakistani troops have captured check posts of vital importance, Indians are caught by surprise and by no means can they recapture the posts. Gen Iftikhar asked many pinching questions regarding the tactics of this adventure, which were not answered logically. The best logic DGMO came up with was this;

Since the Indian troops are busy in Kashmir and other northern areas therefore they are not in a position to open this new front.

So there you go, Government was told, on 17^th may 1999, nearly after 6 months of when it all got started i.e. 18^th December 1998, first reki carried out by Captain Nadeem and Havildar Lalal Jaan. Do keep this in mind that other two forces i.e. Air force and Navy were still kept in dark!