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In April-early May 1999, Col. Khushal Thakur, Commanding officer of 18 Grenadiers, deployed in Kashmir Valley, had gone on annual leave when the unit was ordered to move into the Kargil-Dras sector as the inputs about intrusions by Pakistani forces started getting alarming by the day. As part of the 56 Brigade (belonging to 8 Mountain Division), the unit under the leadership of its second-in-command Lt Col. R. Vishwanathan, the unit moved to Dras and was told to evict ‘some’ Pakistani intruders sitting atop the Tololing peak and Point 4590. Days after the battalion had reached Dras, Col Thakur (who had by then cut short his leave), made the first recce of the area even as ammunition and other stores were being dumped along the Bhimbat nallah.
In his assessment, there were more than half a dozen terrorists, as was initially thought. The earlier battalion had been unable to make much progress and every time a patrol approached the peak, it came under intense fire. Thakur surmised it was a professional and well-trained force, well armed and well-trained was perched at the top and was pinning down any Indian assault. He wanted more time and more firepower before launching an attack. But the Brigade HQ and higher the senior officers were getting impatient and tried to put pressure on 18 Grenadiers. Thakur and his Vishwanathan had meanwhile moved up to be near the attacking force and provide leadership.
Despite their best efforts however, success was proving to be elusive. At one point, an angry and desperate brigade commander Brig Amar Aul of 56 Brigade told Thakur to hand over the command of the battalion to his second-in-command Vishwanathan. A fine officer that he was, Vishwanathan refused, saying he could not do any better than what Thakur was doing. Shortly after this incident, 18 Grenadiers did manage to help 2 Raj Rif in gaining the first significant victory in the Kargil war but at considerable cost. Thakur saw Vishwanathan die in his lap and was witness to so many of his men and JCOs sacrificing their lives. A month later, 18 Grenadiers also recaptured Tiger Hill.
Now, a quarter century later, standing at the base of the Tololing peak and in the shadow of Tiger Hill, Thakur, who later commanded the very Brigade and retired as a Brigadier, recalls those difficult days in this conversation, done mostly in Hindi. Guaranteed to give you goosebumps.
Author, thought leader and one of South Asia's leading strategic analysts, Nitin A. Gokhale has forty years of rich and varied experience behind him as a conflict reporter, Editor, author and now a media entrepreneur who owns and curates two important digital platforms, BharatShakti.in and StratNewsGlobal.com focusing on national security, strategic affairs and foreign policy matters.
At the beginning of his long and distinguished career, Gokhale has lived and reported from India’s North-east for 23 years, writing and analysing various insurgencies in the region, been on the ground at Kargil in the summer of 1999 during the India-Pakistan war, and also brought live reports from Sri Lanka’s Eelam War IV between 2006-2009.
Author of over a dozen books on wars, insurgencies and conflicts, Gokhale relocated to Delhi in 2006, was Security and Strategic Affairs Editor at NDTV, a leading Indian broadcaster for nine years, before launching in 2015 his own digital properties.
An alumni of the Asia-Pacific Centre for Security Studies in Hawaii, Gokhale now writes, lectures and analyses security and strategic matters in Indo-Pacific and travels regularly to US, Europe, South and South-East Asia to speak at various international seminars and conferences.
Gokhale also teaches at India’s Defence Services Staff College (DSSC), the three war colleges, India's National Defence College, College of Defence Management and the intelligence schools of both the R&AW and Intelligence Bureau.
He tweets at @nitingokhale
