Captured Pak Army officer fought Kargil

Exactly eight years after India won the Kargil War, security agencies may have the first eyewitness details of the battle from the other side.

Exactly eight years after India won the Kargil War, security agencies may have the first eyewitness details of the battle from the other side.

Sources reveal that former Pakistani soldier Shahzad Khan who is in Jammu and Kashmir Police custody since being captured in Bandipore, and who is believed to have been an active commander of the Lashkar-e-Toiba since 2001, was a Second Lieutenant serving in the Air Defence Unit of the Pakistani army that downed an Indian plane during the war.

Khan, sources say, also received a top Pakistani army gallantry medal for bravery. However, it is not clear whether Khan was part of the Air Defence Unit that shot down an MiG-21 fighter plane or an Mi-17, both of which were hit in the early days of the war in 1999.

Sources say Khan as been a source of “valuable information” about what happened on the ground on the other side as the two armies fought in Kargil, being the first ever Pakistani serviceman who had been in combat during the war captured by India.

Khan’s importance to the security agencies reportedly also lies in his family background. He is said to be a close relative of Lt Gen Mohammad Aziz, a top Pakistani officer.

Khan’s capture has incidentally been kept under wraps by the J-K Police, which has not even put him under “formal arrest”.