Bravery, Enthusiasm And Zeal Of Our Young Officers Gave Us The Edge In

Switching from counter-insurgency operations to fighting a war is tough, more so when there is little time at hand. Perhaps few would know it better than Maj. Gen. Mohinder Puri (who subsequently retired as Lt Gen), who commanded the 8 Mountain Division in 1999. In May 1999, we were located in Sharifabad and given the task of counter-insurgency operations in North Kashmir, he told Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale as part of our special series ‘Kargil, 25 Years On’. Around the third week of May, the Corps Commander called him up and asked him to be prepared to move to Dras. He did a recce of the area, returned and made plans. Then, he was told to hang on as some other formation would be deployed there. Hours later, the plans changed. Then Army Chief Gen. VP Malik asked him whether he would like to undertake the operation. Maj. Gen. Puri agreed. “There was no choice and there should be no choice. War comes only once in a lifetime. "We would appreciate if there is no pressure on us. Given the terrain, the casualties are going to be high," he told the Chief who gave the go-ahead and kept his word till the end. 25 years later, he credits the young officers and jawans for the military victory. “We owe it to them; they did a spectacular job.” Listen in for more.
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[@TXSrinis]

Excellent series @Nitin Gokhale. Great to see the worthy protagonists of the time get recognition, and through them, the 527 other intrepid soldiers who unfortunately did not make it! Not to forget the 1,500+ who were injured and families left to suffer - ordinary people achieving extraordinary feats! Nice to hear Lt.Gen. Puri’s eloquent recount of those days. Despite the Kargil Review Committee’s deliberations, wish a more critical and transparent analysis had been done to examine intelligence as well as staff-level failures that resulted in casualties. Sad that commanders and soldiers such as Brigs. Devinder Singh and Amul Asthana, and Maj. Bhatnagar were made to pay the price for too-level failures. Truly unfortunate; however not too late for the government to redress, IMO!!

[@victor256in]

Great leader

[@prasnair72]

Excellent interview, as usual...Nitin!! Can you also please do a feature about Pt 5353? There is so little written about it.

[@munirahmed8229]

General puri. I think u done very resonable analysis. I as a Pakistani Living in London last 50 years we should learn to live with peace and fight against the poverty. I have a very high respect for the Jung soldiers on both sides. This was only four generals half cut plan from Pakistan side. They used no heavy Artillery and no Air Forces and India used both. Otherwise would have been all out war. In that case things would have been gone to no return point and would be nothing left in the subcontinent. So we should pray for peace and fight against the poverty which is common enemy of both countries. Musharef answered this question in India while he was invited by Hindustan Time that why u done Kargil and he replied u made Bangladesh. Both Armies are professional but Mr Bachpi and General Musherf was very close to peace agreement and both our Brave and professional Armies from both countries rejected. What they will after the peace agreement sell PAkoras and India is too weak to fight CHINA AND same Pakistan is too small compared to India. But they can do unbelievable damage to each other. So India Pakistan china should learn in peace and in fact we Pakistan and India should learn something from china to make our peoples lives better and better like Chinese already did.

[@sridharmurthy1076]

Great interview, very informative. 🙏🙏🙏🙏