Bull’s eye: Pak firing directed by observation posts in India

Lt Gen Krishan Pal, General Officer Commanding, 15 Corps, confirmed the arrest of three persons and said that they were under sustained interrogation.

Pal told The Indian Express that Army worked on some clues to reach the conclusion that the Kargil firing was directed by someone from the telephone exchange. He said the suspicion was confirmed when amidst heavy firing of shells on the town, the telephone exchange was closed down. “Their shells suddenly started landing wide off the mark”. This confirmatory test was performed a number of times with the same results, he said.

The Corpscommander said it appeared someone was directing the Pakistanis through the ISD calls. The Army has demanded screening of the staff of the telephone exchange of the most populous border town located on the edge of the Line of Control in Kashmir.

Kargil with a population of 10,000 and an important junction on the vital 442 km Srinagar-Leh highway was targeted by Pakistani troops in October and July. People fled as shells hit schools, market places and hospitals. The firing which claimed lives of 11 residents and destroyed several buildings was the first such experience for the people after the 1971 war.

Pal said border firing disrupted the surveillance against infiltrators as the jawans are forced to stay put longed inside the bunkers. The firing at villages caused migration and it ensured a hurdle-free passage to the infiltrators. “With villagers shifting Army could not get information about the intruders,” he said.

Pakistani artillery fire has repeatedly hit the 12 Infantry Brigade HQs at Uri too.The Army intercepted the messages relayed on wireless transmitters to the Pakistani gunners correcting the artillery fire from vantage positions overlooking Uri on the other side of the Jhelum river. It is for the first time that Pakistan has been able to place OPs all along the LoC in the Kashmir sector to direct the fire to the artillery guns.

Direct hits were lodged at the BSF picket at Jabla killing four jawans, which is surprising because it was disguised as thatched mud hut. Another Army picket located close to the NS bridge (the vital link between Uri and the rest of Kashmir) and sheltered in a culvert also got a direct hit, killing one jawan.

An OP also directed accurate Pakistani artillery fire on the Kargil airdrome. “In that spurt of shelling, the first few shells landed all around the airport but the minute the first shell hit the target, six shells hit the airport in succession, pointing to the direction of the Pakistani guns from a person who was observing it,” an Army officer posted inKargil said.

An OP utilising a wireless set directed artillery fire onto the Boniyar military hospital from the Baitangi Heights. His transmissions to Pakistani positions were intercepted by chance by the Army, which launched a crackdown in the Baitangi Heights. The OP, However, escaped the Army dragnet. The Army also launched crackdowns in the Taji village on the LoC and Darhan village on tip-offs that OPs were occupying vantage positions to direct Pakistani artillery fire.

An estimated 8,000-9,000 people have fled the Uri region following the unprecedented artillery fire. In the Uri sector alone, Pakistan has fired 16,000 shells of the 160 mm, 155 mm, 130 mm, 105 mm and mortars. The Army has claimed that even short-range missiles were fired by Pakistan.

Pakistani guns have for the first time targeted Boniyar and Chandanwari, less than 20 km away from the 19 Infantry Division HQs at Baramulla. Shells also hit the Army Hospital at Boniyar. Multi-barrel or cluster rockets were fired on the villages ofGarkote and Nambla in Uri.

The Army today has launched a crackdown in villages lying between Kamarkote and Dachhi in the Uri Sector. Troops are questioning villagers about the identity of the persons who had been sending wireless transmissions to Pakistani artillery positions during the week-long firing.

Massive manhunts have also been launched along the LoC sectors of Tangdhar, Macchil, Keran and Kargil to trace out the OPs.