One year later, Kargil jawans get a few snow scooters and some tears

“The vibration is so much you cannot focus your binoculars at any point. And then due to the cold climatic conditions there is fog so the naked eye fails to detect anything. A thermal imager can spot warm bodies against cold snow. But now that Sri Lanka and Sierra Leone have overtaken Kargil, we are forgotten already. Our top priority demands are again on the backburner,” laments a senior officer here.

A lone soldier sits close to a kerosene bukhari in a shed massaging his feet which have turned white from the cold. His skin peels away when he takes off his socks, his toes are numb. Even in May, the temperature is minus four here at 10,662 feet. At his post, 5,500 feet higher, it’s six degrees lower than zero. But he and his patrol still trudge along from one mountain top to another to ensure that there are no “intruders” this time across the Line of Control.

All the soldiers have to walk since the second promise made to them remains unfulfilled. That of providing unattended ground sensors. Equipment that would have alerted them if the LoC was violated at any point.

“There are hundreds of reasons why the promise was not met. The equipment we want cannot be bought off the shelf. There have to be price negotiations or the trials have to be conducted. Here we are dying a thousand deaths everyday. Why does the nation not realise that this too is a very high price to pay?” a young infantry officer asks hugging his coat parka tighter.

“Pakistan acquired weapon-locating radars (WLR) half-a-decade ago. It has been flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over these mountains for more than two years now. Earlier in Siachen and for the past one year here. The heights for them are also 16,000 feet but we still are in the process of acquiring them. We are a more powerful artillery but without eyes (WLR and UAVs) we are like blind boxers in the ring. If it connects, it hurts the opponent, if it does not, then a miss is as good as a mile,” an artillery officer says.

“We are always tense waiting and anticipating the enemy’s move. We are never mentally at peace technology-wise to take on the enemy’s misadventures even one year after we were caught napping,” he adds in disgust. The only addition that has been made since last year are some snow scooters and Hasselbledd cameras for aerial surveillance. Officers and men hope that other things will be coming in soon.

What about the intelligence system? The less said the better. Now every second day, the Army remains prepared for a 200-man strong enemy strike at every sector; as intelligence inputs go. Every village in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, especially near Olthingthang and Skardu, have become terrorist training camps. There are underground bunkers and aircraft hangers in PoK.

“The main problem is that even now there is nobody to collate, assess and analyse these reports for us. It may be happening in New Delhi but none of it comes down here to us on the ground,” a senior commander confides.

So where do things stand one year later? Right where it all started. Back to square one.