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| LOOKING BACK | | Pak General orchestrated attacks by tribals | |
SANT KUMAR SHARMA
Jammu, October 25, 2009:
In 1999, the Pakistani Army had initially claimed that armed irregulars from the Northern Areas (Gilgit and Baltistan) had entered Kargil. Later, it said some elements of Northern Light Infantry (NLI) were involved in capturing vast swathes of mountainous terrain.
Denying its complicity flatly, the Pakistan government had much later conceded that the Pakistan Army led the entire show. A decade later, even now, Nawaz Sharif continues to claim that General Pervez Musharraf had kept him (then Prime Minister of Pakistan) in the dark about Kargil attack.
Last year, after the terrorist attack on Mumbai, the Pakistan government had done the same. It refused to admit that its citizens were involved in the attack and calls them ``non-state actors’’.
This denial of its complicity in any terrorist attacks directed against Indian territories is something Pakistan has been doing right from its birth in 1947.
In 1947, the Lashkars backed by the Pakistani Army to invade Jammu & Kashmir were gathered near Abbotabad by October 18, four days before the D day i.e. October 22. To begin with, at least 20 Lashkars were put under Major-General Akbar Khan’s command.
Brigadier Sher Khan assisted the Maj-Gen who was codenamed Tariq and operated from the same building as the Commander-in-Chief of the Pakistan Army. General Sir Frank Messervy, the C-in-C, knew about the `Operation Gulmarg’ plan in its entirety.
By October 21 evening, 7 Infantry Division of Pakistan Army was concentrated in Murree-Abbotabad area to provide back-up support to the Lashkars. The Division had been tasked to move into J&K territories once the Lashkars had done their job.
Along another axis, a full infantry brigade was kept ready at Sialkot to launch attack on the Jammu city. The Pakistan Army provided full logistical support to the Lashkars by way of giving arms, ammunition and clothes, besides transport vehicles.
Maj-Gen Khan’s plan was to move some Lashkars from Muzaffarbad to Srinagar via Domel, Uri and Baramulla. Another forward thrust was to come from Haji Pir pass directed for capturing Gulmarg. More Lashkars were to attack and capture Sopore, Handwara and Bandipore.
Several Lashkars were tasked to capture Poonch and Rajouri and move down from the hills to Akhnoor and then onwards to the Jammu city.
As planned, on October 22, the raiders armed, orchestrated and controlled by the Pakistan Army attacked Muzaffarabad crossing over into J&K territory from Garhi Habibullah. At Domel, the J&K garrison was led by Lt-Col Narain Singh and he was able to inform Srinagar over wireless about the invasion.
At that critical juncture, the J&K forces had been spread thin over hundreds of kilometers in small batches and could not have offered effective resistance to the invaders. In desperation, Brigadier Rajendra Singh, who was the officiating Chief of Staff of the State forces, led a small band of 150 men towards Domel.
Brig Singh reached Uri at midnight on October 22 and the next day, a small reinforcement joined him. On October 24, a second reinforcement was made available to Brig Singh. These troops led by Captain Jwala Singh contacted Brig Singh and conveyed Maharaja Hari Singh’s orders.
The wording of the orders betrayed desperation as it asked Brig Singh to hold the enemy at Uri ``at all costs and to the last man’’.
Brigadier Rajendra Singh followed the orders to the last word and sacrificed his life fighting the attackers. He was awarded Maha Vir Chakra (MVC) for his gallantry, posthumously.
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