Editorial from "The Times of India" appeared on July 03, 1999

With each passing day, international pressure on Pakistan to vacate its aggression in Kargil appears to be mounting. The latest countries to make known their stand are Britain and China. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific panel of the International Relations Committee of the US Congress has put forward an amendment urging the administration to block IMF and World Bank loans to Pakistan until Islamabad withdraws its armed intruders from Indian territory. By formally drawing attention to the sanctity of the Line of Control, the Chinese government has, in its own elliptical style, made it clear to Pakistan that the intruders should immediately be pulled back. While British prime minister Tony Blair's telephonic advice to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to withdraw the intruders would not have come as a surprise to Islamabad, the Pakistanis are bound to find Beijing's latest pronouncement particularly irksome. With President Bill Clinton having made it clear at least two weeks ago that Pakistan must pull back its forces from Indian territory, the Pakistani leadership was counting on China to bail it out. Mr Nawaz Sharif's visit to Beijing, though scheduled well before the Kargil crisis blew up, was essentially aimed at getting the Chinese government to point an accusing number at India. The Chinese, however, refused to oblige, preferring mealy mouthed platitudes about the need for peace and dialogue to any pointed pronouncement on the matter. While Mr Sharif cut short his visit for other reasons, his hosts' lack of enthusiasm for the sacred cause of the `freedom fighters' must surely have weighed heavily on his mind. By stressing the inviolability of the LoC, China has now gone one step further. It is still refraining from formally holding Pakistan responsible for the war-like situation in Kargil but only the most incorrigible optimist in Islamabad would fail to see the writing on the Great Wall.

Fortunately for India, its achievements on the diplomatic front have been accompanied by notable successes on the battlefield as well. No army in the world has as much experience of sustained high altitude warfare as the Indian Army does. Even though the human cost has been immense, New Delhi's keenly calibrated use of airpower, heavy artillery and assault troops has led to the recovery of several key peaks and promontories. The crucial highway link to Leh has already been secured and the Army is on the verge of expelling the Pakistani and mujahideen forces from some other strategically important heights. Once that task has been achieved, the scale and tempo of military operations will necessarily have to change. Small, isolated pockets of Pakistani resistance will continue as the nature of the terrain is such that it is not possible to free every square inch of Indian territory in one swoop. Those infiltrators who survive the coming winter will be picked off by the Army in a manner which minimises Indian casualties. So long as there is no fresh Pakistani provocation, there will be no need for a high-octane campaign. As the military situation changes on the ground, the government must take care to brief the opposition parties so that a political consensus on the Kargil endgame can be forged. The last thing our jawans need is political grandstanding in which the opposition eggs on the government to undertake operations of limited military utility.