KASHMIR: India and Pakistan fought a secret, large-scale battle in Kashmir last month in which Indian fighter jets and helicopter gunships, backed by artillery fire, carried out precision bombing raids, killing several Pakistani soldiers, according to military sources.
The sources said that the July 29th clash at the 13,000-foot-high Loonda post in the Machil sector along the line of control - the most serious engagement since the two nuclear rivals went on to a war footing last December - took place several weeks after Pakistani troops occupied four bunkers and several fortified trenches about 300 to 500 metres from the disputed frontier inside Indian territory.
However, neither side chose to publicise the clash.
The Indian army, which is believed to have been reluctant to admit to having lost a vital outpost, wanted the fiasco buried without fuss.
For the Indians, the incident evoked memories of the incursion by thousands of Pakistani soldiers across 140km of the line of control in the nearby mountainous Kargil region three years ago which led to 11 weeks of bitter skirmishes. The fighting on that occasion included aerial bombing in which 1,200 soldiers, 520 of them Indian, died.
The Pakistanis, for their part, were loath to reveal the military setback they had suffered at a time when India appeared to be diplomatically finessing Islamabad.
The Loonda post, located about 220km north of Kashmir's summer capital, Srinagar, faces the Pakistani town of Kel and is of considerable strategic importance to India.
The remote post, which is surrounded by barren, glacial mountains, enables the Indian army to dominate Pakistani lines of communication along the Neelam valley.
Security officials point out that Kel has been a major staging-post for infiltration into Kashmir by terrorist groups based in Pakistan. These incursions have fuelled the 13-year-old insurgency, which has claimed more than 35,000 lives.
It is unclear how the Loonda post fell. The army says that the post was shrouded in rain and cloud at the time, rendering routine patrols to the area impossible after the snows had begun to melt during April. However, it is unable to explain how Pakistani soldiers were able to move with ease into the area, in spite of adverse weather condidions, and seize and hold the outpost.
An Indian infantry unit which was sent up to the post in mid-July was ambushed and the army has admitted that three soldiers died. Security sources, however, said that the unit took 11 casualties.
Eventually, on July 29th, infantry units, backed by artillery fire, helicopter gunships and fighter-bombers armed with "smart bombs", attacked the Loonda post. The bombing virtually flattened the bunkers, all resistance was neutralised and the post was recaptured.
Army sources claim that 28 Pakistani soldiers died in the assault, which was intended to deliver a "grim message" to Pakistan that any "messing around" by its forces on Indian territory would be met with a punishing response, a senior officer said.