The Indian army moved forward yesterday to establish control in the strategic mountain areas it has recaptured from invaders along the frontier with Pakistan.
Officials said the army was advancing into the strategically located Tiger Hill area, a day after the multi-directional assault by the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles, Garhwal Rifles and the Naga Regiment secured Point 5140, at 170,000 feet the highest feature on the Tololing ridge.
Officials said the intruders, whom India claims are Pakistani soldiers and mercenaries, have been pushed back from Point 5140 and can no longer direct artillery and mortar fire which had disrupted traffic on a crucial military highway.
For several weeks this fire had disrupted traffic to northern Indian army positions bordering Pakistan and China.
Three Indian soldiers were killed and nine others injured in the assault at first light on Sunday, while 13 of the intruders died in the hand-to-hand combat that ensued.
So far Indian casualties in the Kashmir conflict, which began early last month, total 149 dead, 297 wounded and nine missing. Officials said over 330 of the enemy had been killed.
Pakistan denies India's claims, saying the intruders are Kashmiri "freedom fighters" continuing their decade-long civil war - in which over 20,000 have died - for an independent Muslim homeland.
Senior military officers said yesterday that capturing Point 5140 did not mean that pushing the intruders back from the adjoining ridges of Tiger Hill would be easier, but the army was now tactically better placed. "We have to continue to reclaim other enemy positions by attacking from below," said one officer.
Army spokesman Col Bikram Singh said the fighting continued to be fierce, as there were innumerable peaks which had to be systematically cleared of intruders, fighting a "retrograde" battle.
Most of the fighting in Kashmir's icy wasteland takes place after dark or at first light, and daylight hours are spent consolidating gains made earlier.
Officers involved in the operation said daylight activity was suicidal as all movement against the white, snowy background was instantly visible and invited devastating fire from the intruders above, hunkered safely behind bunkers and huge rocks.
The Indian air force yesterday said combat pilots were standing by because of persisting bad weather over the battle zones of Drass, Batalik and Kargil. "There have been no air strikes so far because the weather has still not improved," an air force spokesman said. The air force has executed over 500 sorties since air strikes began on May 26th.
The National Security Council adviser, Mr Brajesh Mishra, said there was no possibility of the Kashmir fighting escalating into a nuclear conflict. But on the private Star television network on Sunday, he warned that India would go "all out" if any nuclear attempt was made against it, despite its policy of no first use of nuclear weapons.
Reuters reports from Islamabad:-
Pakistan said yesterday that it had killed 13 Indian soldiers in new artillery duels across the Kashmir control line.
The Pakistan army said in a statement that its artillery units had responded to "unprovoked and indiscriminate artillery and mortar shelling by Indian troops during the last 24 hours", engaging Indian logistic installations, military convoys and other targets in the Drass, Kargil and Batalik sectors.
"According to credible information, 13 Indian soldiers were killed and numerous wounded," it said.
In New Delhi the Indian Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, told reporters he welcomed a Group of Eight statement seeking an end to infiltration on its side of the line. "India's offensive against them will go on "until they are evicted," he said.
Pakistan also drew comfort from the G8 statement calling for an end to the fighting, and said the world should now put pressure on India to negotiate an end to their 50-year dispute.
"We are happy that the G8 has called for unconditional revival of Indo-Pakistan dialogue," a Pakistan spokesman, Mr Tariq Altaf, told reporters at a news briefing about the G8 statement on Sunday. "I hope India heeds the G8 call . . . to resume dialogue," he added. "Our doors are open. They will remain open."
An Indian national security adviser, Mr Brajesh Mishra, said that although the G8 stopped short of naming Pakistan, the inference was clear.
"Even if Pakistan is not named . . . clearly the international community and the whole world knows they are the ones who sent intruders across the Line of Control," he said. "If Pakistan does not withdraw, the fighting will escalate."
