By Sarwar Kashani, IANS
New Delhi : The 1999 Kargil intrusion that brought India and Pakistan on the brink of a nuclear clash may no longer be such a thorn in the relationship between the two countries. But it continues to be an issue at the people-to-people level with some Pakistanis still seeking “forgiveness”.
“When will you forgive us for the Kargil misadventure?” a young Pakistani student asked a panel of former Indian Army officers at a recent event in the capital.
Some 43 Indians and Pakistanis had gathered at the United Services Institution (USI) last week for a workshop on military confidence building measures (CBMs).
The workshop on military CBMs and interaction on UN peacekeeping missions between India and Pakistan, part of the sixth WISCOMP (Women in Security Conflict and Management of Peace) conflict transformation annual convention, was addressed by Lt. Gen. (retd) Satish Nambiar and Lt. Gen. (retd) B.S. Malik.
While Kargil figuring in the discussion was natural, the audience was surprised when Amina Afzal, who lives in Islamabad and works with the Institute of Strategic Studies there, stood up to apologise for the “Kargil misadventure” that saw hundreds of Pakistani armed intruders crossing the ceasefire line (also called the Line of Control) into Jammu and Kashmir eight years ago, triggering a military conflict.
“Will you ever forgive us for the (Kargil) incident? Can you get over that?” asked Afzal, who is a postgraduate in defence and strategic studies from Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad.
“With the passage of time it will be forgotten but Kargil incident had rendered a great deal of mistrust,” replied Nambiar.
“Reservations are for the then Pakistan army chief and now President Pervez Musharraf and not the establishment,” he added.
“Generations will forget it and we’ll also have to…we have lost many opportunities to live in peace,” is how Malik put it.
Thousands of militants backed by the Pakistan Army captured Kargil hill posts, situated at an altitude of 18,000 feet, in the summer of 1999 when both nations had acquired nuclear weapons.
India lost over 500 soldiers in the clash, while an estimated 3,000 Pakistanis (troopers as well as militants) were also killed.
(Sarwar Kashani can be contacted at [email protected])