Ex General reveals details about Kargil fiasco

ISLAMABAD, Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz has said only four military commanders were aware of Kargil operation and the details of which were hidden from the rest of the military commanders initially.

In an article published in daily Nation, the former Chief of General Staff initially the Kargil operation was known only to Gen Pervez Musharraf, chief of general staff Lt Gen Mohammad Aziz, FCNA (Force Command Northern Areas) commander Lt Gen Javed Hassan and 10Corps commander Lt Gen Mahmud Ahmad.

He said the majority of corps commanders and principal staff officers were kept in the dark.

Aziz disclosed that then director general military operations Lt Gen Taugir Zia came to know about it later.

Gen Aziz was serving as director general of the analysis wing of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) at the time of Kargil operation.

The retried general said that operation was never planned as Musharraf never saw Kargil as a major operation, adding that only the FCNA was involved in it and perhaps a section of 10Corps.

Aziz termed it as a major intelligence failure for India. He said the operation was a miscalculated move, adding that the operation’s objectives were not clear and its implications were not properly evaluated`.

`It was a failure because we had to hide its objectives and results from our own people and the nation. It had no purpose, no planning and nobody knows even today how many soldiers lost their lives.

He said he was not aware of what information had been shared with then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, but he felt that Mr Sharif `was not fully in the picture`.

Azizi said a general told him that Nawaz Sharif asked `when are you giving us Kashmir?` during an informal discussion.

Gen Aziz claimed he himself first discovered that something was up when he came across wireless communication intercepts from which he could tell that something was making the Indian forces panic.

He took the intercepts to then ISI director general Lt Gen Ziauddin Butt and asked what was happening. Gen Aziz was told by Butt that the army had captured some area in Kargil.