Kargil War

"Operation Vijay (1999)" redirects here. For the 1961 Indian operation, see Annexation of Goa.

Kargil War
Part of the Kashmir conflict and the India–Pakistan conflict

Indian soldiers after capturing a hill from Pakistani forces during the Kargil War
Date3 May – 26 July 1999
(2 months, 3 weeks and 2 days)
Location
Kargil district, Jammu and Kashmir, (now Ladakh, India)
Result

Indian victory[4]

  • India regains possession of Kargil
Territorial
changes		 Status quo ante bellum
Belligerents
India Pakistan
Non-state allies:
United Jihad Council[1]
Afghan mercenaries[2][3]
Commanders and leaders
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
V.P. Malik
Yashwant Tipnis
Nirmal Vij
Krishnan Pal
Mohinder Puri
O. P. Nandrajog		 Nawaz Sharif
Pervez Musharraf
Aziz Khan
Ashraf Rashid
Tauqir Zia
Units involved
Indian order of battle Pakistani order of battle
Strength
30,000 5,000
Casualties and losses

Indian figures:

  • 527 killed[5][6][7]
  • 1,363 wounded[8]
  • 1 POW
  • 1 MiG-27 shot down
  • 1 MiG-21 shot down
  • 1 Mil Mi-17 shot down

Pakistani claims:

  • 1,600 (per Musharraf)[9]

U.S. estimate figures:

Pakistani figures:

Other Pakistani figures:

  • 4,000 killed (per Nawaz Sharif)
  • 3,000 killed (PML(N) white paper)[16]
  • 357 killed (per Musharraf)[14]

Indian claims:

  • 737–1,200 killed (at least 249 bodies recovered in Indian territory)[17][18][19]

The Kargil War, was fought between India and Pakistan from May to July 1999 in the Kargil district of Ladakh, then part of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir and along the Line of Control (LoC). In India, the conflict is also referred to as Operation Vijay (Sanskrit: विजय, lit. 'Victory'), which was the codename of the Indian military operation in the region.[20] The Indian Air Force acted jointly with the Indian Army to flush out the Pakistan Army and paramilitary troops from vacated Indian positions along the LoC,[21] in what was designated as Operation Safed Sagar (Hindi: ऑपरेशन सफेद सागर, lit. 'White Sea').

The conflict was triggered by the infiltration of Pakistani troops—disguised as Kashmiri militants—into strategic positions on the Indian side of the LoC,[22][23] which serves as the de facto border between the two countries in the disputed region of Kashmir. During its initial stages, Pakistan blamed the fighting entirely on independent Kashmiri insurgents, but documents left behind by casualties and later statements by Pakistan's Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff showed the involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces, led by General Ashraf Rashid.[24][25] The Indian Army, later supported by the Indian Air Force, recaptured a majority of the positions on the Indian side of the LoC; facing international diplomatic opposition, Pakistani forces withdrew from all remaining Indian positions along the LoC.

The Kargil War is the most recent example of high-altitude warfare in mountainous terrain, and as such, posed significant logistical problems for the combatting sides. It also marks one of only two instances of conventional warfare between nuclear-armed states (alongside the Sino-Soviet border conflict). India had conducted its first successful test in 1974; Pakistan, which had been developing its nuclear capability in secret since around the same time, conducted its first known tests in 1998, just two weeks after a second series of tests by India.

  1. ^ Kumar, Sumita. "Pakistan's Jehadi Apparatus: Goals and Methods." Strategic Analysis, vol. 24, no. 12, 2001, https://ciaotest.cc.columbia.edu/olj/sa/sa_mar01kus01.html.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference Militant was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference CLAWS was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^
    • Praagh, David Van (2003). The Greater Game: India's Race with Destiny and China. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 253. ISBN 9780773526396. By then, India had won decisively in the mountains of Kashmir. MacDonald, Myra (2017). Defeat is an Orphan: How Pakistan Lost the Great South Asian War. Oxford University Press. pp. 27, 53, 64, 66. ISBN 978-1-84904-858-3. p. 27: It was not so much that India won the Great South Asian War but that Pakistan lost it.
      p. 53: The story of the Kargil War—Pakistan's biggest defeat by India since 1971—is one that goes to the heart of why it lost the Great South Asian War.
      p. 64: Afterwards, Musharraf and his supporters would claim that Pakistan won the war militarily and lost it diplomatically. In reality, the military and diplomatic tides turned against Pakistan in tandem.
      p. 66: For all its bravado, Pakistan had failed to secure even one inch of land.
      Less than a year after declaring itself a nuclear-armed power, Pakistan had been humiliated diplomatically and militarily.      Lavoy, Peter René, ed. (2009). Asymmetric Warfare in South Asia: The Causes and Consequences of the Kargil Conflict. Cambridge University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-521-76721-7. The false optimism of the architects of the Kargil intrusion, colored by the illusion of a cheap victory, was not only the main driver of the operation, and hence the crisis, it also was the cause of Pakistan's most damaging military defeat since the loss of East Pakistan in December 1971. Dettman, Paul R. (2001). India Changes Course: Golden Jubilee to Millennium. Greenwood. pp. 130, 131, 140, 177. ISBN 978-0-275-97308-7. p. 130: the BJP could go to the people as the party that had undergirded India's victory over Pakistan in the Kargil 'war'.
      p. 131: Another of India's institutions that had benefited from India's victory in the Kargil war was its military establishment.
      p. 140: He went on to take credit for the conduct of a 'war' effort that had led to a diplomatic as well as a military victory.
      p. 177: For India, Vajpayee had led the military and diplomatic effort that had won the Kargil 'war'. For the world, he had done so while keeping India's armed forces on their own side of the LOC in Kashmir and he had prevented the outbreak of a multi-front general war with Pakistan.       Perkovich, George (2002). India's Nuclear Bomb: The Impact on Global Proliferation. University of California Press. p. 479. ISBN 978-0-520-23210-5. The Kargil war ended as had previous wars, with an Indian victory.
  5. ^ Chakraborty, A. K. (21 July 2000). "Kargil War Brings into Sharp Focus India's Commitment to Peace" (PDF). Press Information Bureau, Government of India. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 July 2022. Retrieved 26 July 2022.
  6. ^ Fernandes, George (28 November 2002). "Soldiers Killed in Kargil War". Parliamentary Questions, Lok Sabha. Parliament of India. Starred Question No 160. Archived from the original on 2 December 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
  7. ^ "Complete Roll of Honour of Indian Army's Killed in Action during Op Vijay". Indian Army. Archived from the original on 22 December 2007. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
  8. ^ Fernandes, George (8 December 1999). "Soldiers Killed During Indo Pak Wars". Parliamentary Questions, Lok Sabha. Parliament of India. Unstarred Question No 793. Archived from the original on 16 February 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2009.
  9. ^ "Musharraf claims Kargil was a big success militarily for Pakistan". Greater Kashmir. 1 February 2013. Archived from the original on 29 May 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  10. ^ "Kargil probe body had sought Musharraf's court martial". The News. AFP. 13 January 2013. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  11. ^ "Pak quietly names 453 men killed in Kargil war". Rediff News. 18 November 2010. Archived from the original on 27 June 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  12. ^ "Pakistan Army admits to Kargil martyrs". NDTV. Archived from the original on 21 November 2010. Retrieved 19 November 2010.
  13. ^ "PAKISTAN ARMY". pakistanarmy.gov.pk. Archived from the original on 28 April 2024. Retrieved 1 April 2025.
  14. ^ a b "Musharraf now has Pak's Kargil toll: 357". indianexpress.com. 7 October 2006. Retrieved 2 February 2013.
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference tribpow was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ Ill-conceived planning by Musharraf led to second major military defeat in Kargil: PML-N Archived 22 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine 6 August 2006, PakTribune
  17. ^ Malik 2006, p. 342.
  18. ^ Pubby, Manu (19 November 2010). "Kargil: Pak suffered most casualties at Batalik". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 27 June 2018. Retrieved 27 June 2018. Indian records say a total of 249 bodies of Pakistani soldiers were recovered during the battle but estimates of total enemy casualties is put around 1000–1200.
  19. ^ Kanwal, Gurmeet (2009). "Pakistan's Strategic Blunder at Kargil" (PDF). CLAWS Journal: 72. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 August 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2018. The army recovered 249 dead bodies of Pakistani regular soldiers from the area of operations in Kargil; 244 dead bodies were buried as per military norms with religious rites; five bodies were accepted by Pakistan and taken back
  20. ^ It is also sometimes referred to as Operation Vijay Kargil so as to distinguish it from Operation Vijay, the 1961 operation by the military of India that led to the capture of Goa, Daman and Diu and Anjidiv Islands.
  21. ^ "Op Safed Sagar: Understanding Air Operations in Kargil". Indian Air Force. Archived from the original on 6 August 2021.
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Qadir was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Musharraf, Pervez (2006). In the Line of Fire: A Memoir. Free Press. pp. 90–91. ISBN 0-7432-8344-9.
  24. ^ Clancy, Tom; Zinni, Tony; Koltz, Tony (2004). Battle Ready. Grosset & Dunlap. ISBN 0-399-15176-1.
  25. ^ Nawaz, Shuja (2007). Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within. p. 420.
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