The Kargil War was a brief conflict which was engaged in between India and Pakistan in the disputed Kashmir region in the summer of 1999. The war or military operation came about owing to a Pakistani incursion into the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir region and the occupation of the town of Kargil and its environs. This is a strategically located settlement near the Indian-Pakistan border. The Pakistani action led to the inception of Operation Safed Sagar by the Indian government in which 30,000 troops were deployed to reclaim control of Kargil. The resulting clashes saw most of the 5,000 Pakistani irregulars who had occupied Kargil either killed or wounded and India reclaimed control of its border territories. The war constituted one of the few times in history when two nuclear-armed states have nearly descended into full-scale war with one another. The events of the summer of 1999 point towards longstanding tensions over the border zone, particularly the Vale of Kashmir, which have dictated migratory and settlement patterns here since the end of the British Raj and the partition of India in 1947.[1]
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Kargil War chronology of eventsKargil War chronology of events
The dispute between India and Pakistan over the Vale of Kashmir and other border regions has its roots back in the days of independence from British rule in the aftermath of the Second World War. The British Raj is often referred to as British India, but it actually incorporated the modern-day nations of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. When independence came in 1947, the Raj was partitioned into different countries along religious lines. Pakistan was established as a Muslim nation and India as a Hindu nation. The process was extremely chaotic and violent, with pogroms and mass population transfers between India and Pakistan in 1947 and 1948. Border tensions also emerged immediately as Pakistan attempted to claim control over the Vale of Kashmir that had been allotted to India in the north-west of the new country. Tensions have been ongoing there since 1947, while China have also made claims to certain lands along the border regions.[2]
The Kargil War was just one period in which violence flared up in the Jammu and Kashmir territory, which has historically been administered by India as a special zone. The foremost clash was during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, while a Muslim separatist insurgency war began there in 1989. The Kargil War began after violence flared in the region in the first week of 1999. Indian Army patrol units were killed by Pakistani insurgents. This then led to a greater incursion by Pakistani irregulars and occupation of the town of Kargil within Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.[3] The Pakistani government disavowed involvement and claimed that the separatists were acting independently, though in September 2024 the Pakistani government finally admitted to its involvement in the occupation of Kargil.[4]
The Indian government responded swiftly to this incursion into Kashmir and the violation of its sovereign borders. They launched Operation Safed Sagar. Upwards of 30,000 Indian troops were mobilized and prepared for a military response in Kargil. Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops were put on alert in case of the outbreak of a wider war with Pakistan. Had this occurred it would have been a direct way between two countries with nuclear weapons, India having acquired nuclear weapons in the mid-1970s and Pakistan only having recently tested their first weapon of mass destruction in 1998. The wider war was avoided. However, major military clashes began on a local level in Kashmir in late May 1999. The Indian air-force struck at the positions of the insurgents before the Indian army moved in more directly. In the course of June and July 1999, Indian armed forces re-established control over Kargil and the surrounding regions. The casualties were high on the Pakistani side, with a large proportion of the 5,000 or so insurgents being killed or wounded.[5]
The end of the Kargil War was viewed as a major military victory for India and a humiliation of Pakistan in the decades-long running conflict in the Vale of Kashmir. In Pakistan it was viewed as a military disaster. It did not bring the wider geopolitical tensions between Pakistan and India in the region to an end. The border disputes continue, as do low-level insurgency and counter-insurgency clashes. These were exacerbated by the decision of the Indian government to revoke the special administered status of the Jammu and Kashmir region in 2019.[6]
Extent of migration caused by the Kargil WarExtent of migration caused by the Kargil War
The Kargil War exacerbated tensions in the wider Kashmir region and along the border between north-western India and north-eastern Pakistan. The wider conflict, which has been ongoing since Indian independence and partition in 1947, has led to the displacement and migration of hundreds of thousands of people in the Jammu and Kashmir region, Kargil included. Inevitably, the conflict has also led to reluctance to settle in the area, though there are exacerbating factors such as the very high altitude. The war in 1999 contributed to this process, as Indian Hindus briefly left the region under Pakistani occupation. About 20,000 people were displaced from the Kharmanj Valley at the time of the conflict. Ongoing activities after the immediate conflict led to the displacement of a further 20,000. Around 70% of these people remain displaced in camps and other temporary settlements to this day.[7]
Demographic impact of the Kargil WarDemographic impact of the Kargil War
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The Jammu and Kashmir region remains one of the less densely populated parts of the lands administered by the Indian state to this day. This is particularly the case along the northern border with Pakistan where settlements like Kargil are located. The Kargil War did not create this situation, but it has compounded it. A particular demographic impact is that tens of thousands of Kashmiris have been residing in refugee camps in the region for decades, brought about by conflicts like the Kargil War and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971.[8]
See alsoSee also
Explore more about the Kargil WarExplore more about the Kargil War
- India, Births and Baptisms, 1786-1947 records collection on MyHeritage
- India, Marriages, 1792-1948 records collection on MyHeritage
- India, Deaths and Burials, 1719-1948 records collection on MyHeritage
References
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49101016
- ↑ https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kashmir/back.htm
- ↑ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1570677X21001222
- ↑ https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/pakistan/pak-army-admits-involvement-in-kargil-war/articleshow/113156851.cms
- ↑ Peter Lavoy, Asymmetric Warfare in South Asia: The Causes and Consequences of the Kargil Conflict (Cambridge, 2009).
- ↑ https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indias-top-court-orders-elections-kashmir-by-sept-2024-2023-12-11/
- ↑ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-49101016
- ↑ https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/refugees-in-pakistani-administered-kashmir-seek-attention/1671364