India yesterday renewed air strikes against Muslim guerrillas in northern Kashmir amid claims of fresh intrusions by armed militants from Pakistan across the disputed line of control. It also denied as "fictitious" Pakistani claims that 10 children had died after its artillery shells landed on a school in the Neelum valley in Pakistan-held Kashmir. "We are only responding to firing from Pakistani military positions," an army spokesman in Delhi said yesterday.
Military officials said fighter jets continued their raids against militants entrenched in the Kargil's mountainous region in northern Kashmir for the seventh day. Both sides also traded incessant artillery fire across Kargil's snowy wastes and Indian soldiers engaged militants in hand-to-hand combat to successfully capture a 15,000 ft high strategic peak. The army's casualties, meanwhile, increased to 46 dead, 174 wounded and 12 missing.
"Each hill is a formidable battlefield," said a senior army officer. He said dealing with the well-entrenched militants in strategic mountain positions was a "slow process" that might even take months to achieve.
He claimed the army that had been fighting the guerrillas since they were accidentally discovered over four weeks ago had reduced their "efficacy" by encircling them and cutting off their supply lines in Pakistan. "Dislodging them is not easy," he said. India accuses Pakistan of backing the guerrillas to intrude over five miles into its territory in order to alter the line of control that separates Kashmir, over which the nuclear-capable neighbours have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947. Pakistan denies the claim. A senior military officer yesterday said the intruders, spread across over 25 miles of mountainous terrain, criss-crossed by valleys and ridges between 14,000 and 17,000 ft high, were not Islamic militants but Pakistani commandos from the elite Special Forces Group specially trained for high altitude warfare. "It is a methodical operation, planned brilliantly by professionals," he said. Their logistics are meticulously calibrated and focused. He said the intruders were equipped with high altitude clothing and "pup" tents, utilised military radios and frequencies to communicate and were backed by Pakistani artillery fire that helped them secure their positions.
Indian military officials accused Pakistan of infiltrating militants in Kupwara and Rajouri in southern Kashmir. They said the Pakistani army was also moving up its forces in the Akhnoor and Poonch sectors in southern Kashmir where fierce tank battles raged in the 1985 and 1971 wars. "Should the escalation [of Pakistani troops] mount we will respond," a senior military officer said yesterday.
Meanwhile, India and Pakistan did not seem any closer to peace talks yesterday agreed to by New Delhi earlier this week with the date for the meeting between the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Mr Sartaj Aziz, and his counterpart, Mr Jaswant Singh, in Delhi yet to be announced.
Military officials are now concerned about setting up permanent posts in the conflict area - once it's been cleared - that will entail a huge expense India can ill afford.
Army sources said establishing posts in the harsh Kargil-Dras region would far surpass the daily expenditure of 30 billion rupees or over $700,000 it takes to maintain troops at the nearby Siachen glacier at heights of around 20,000 ft.
This region is the world's second coldest place after Siberia and under 20 ft of snow most of the year.
Temperatures here average around minus 20 C, dipping to minus 60 in the colder months with the wind chill factor being far higher. And like the Siachen glacier, the newly proposed posts too will have to be maintained by helicopters.