Court martial papers point to stifling of Kargil intrusion reports

However, these field reports/sightings were not brought on record by Maj Bhatnagar’s Commanding Officer (CO) Col A.K. Shrivasatava. In his Summary of Evidence, Shrivastava said he chose not to forward these to higher HQs. These were only discussed verbally by him with his immediate superiors: 102 Infantry Brigade (Siachen) Commander P.C. Katoch and 3 Division GOC, Maj Gen Varinder S. Budhwar.

Shrivastava said he destroyed Bhatnagar’s field reports on the grounds that these were not “classified” documents.

The summary of evidence recorded in Maj Bhatnagar’s case clearly brings out the fact that the Army’s higher command was informed of the Kargil intrusions much before May. In the summary of evidence recorded by HQ `N’ Area Commander Col Shatki Prasad, Shrivastava has made two vital admissions.

One, he admitted discussing the matter of the Pakistani intrusions on Point 5770 with Maj Bhatnagar and verbally with Brig Katoch and Maj Gen Budhwar in February 1999. But Shrivastava did not report the matter officially as he felt that the enemy bunkers could not be “seen” by Indian troops and that it was not certain that enemy had built a “permanent” post.

That Maj Bhatnagar’s sightings were correct is matter of history now as Point 5770 was reclaimed by the 27 Rajput on June 27.

In fact, Maj Bhatnagar was not alone in reporting enemy sightings on Point 5770. Field-level officers of the Engineers and the Artillery Regiments had also reported sightings of the enemy atop Point 5770 to 102 Brigade but these were disregarded by senior officers.