Lahore: Pakistan’s Army has for the first time publicly acknowledged its involvement in the 1999 Kargil War against India.
Speaking at an event to commemorate Defence Day, Army Chief General Asim Munir honoured the Pakistan soldiers who had died in various conflicts with India, including the Kargil War, a topic that had been carefully avoided in official statements for over two decades.
“The Pakistani community is a community of braves which understands the importance of freedom and how to pay for it,” Munir said.
He added, “Be it 1948, 1965, 1971, or the Kargil war of 1999, thousands of soldiers sacrificed their lives for the country and Islam.”
The statement marks a departure from Pakistan’s long-standing official narrative that portrayed the conflict as mainly carried out by Kashmiri militants and what they call “mujahideen”.
The general’s remarks directly acknowledged the deaths of Pakistani soldiers in Kargil, a confrontation in which Pakistani forces occupied strategic positions in Kashmir, leading to a fierce military response from India. The operation resulted in a humiliating defeat for Pakistan, with US President Bill Clinton forcing then-Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to order the withdrawal of the army troops from the Kargil sector.
India has consistently asserted that the conflict was a direct act of aggression by the Pakistani military. The Pakistani army’s intrusion into Kargil with terrorists as a cover became evident from the intercepted conversation between Gen Musharraf (while visiting Beijing) and his Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Mohammed Aziz in Rawalpindi on May 26 and May 29.
Relations between Pakistan and India remain strained over a host of issues, including the territorial dispute over Kashmir and cross-border skirmishes along the Line of Control (LoC).
