Pervez Musharaff crossed LoC during Kargil war: Pak Army's ex-colonel

01 February, 2013

The Kargil invasion by Pakistan was the brainchild of four senior Pakistani army officials led by ex-army chief General Pervez Musharaff, who himself crossed the Line of Control to take a view of the operation.

This has been exposed by none other than an ex-Pakistani Army Colonel himself, who in his book ‘Witness to Blunder’ said that it was Musharaff who gave approval to the plans formulated by his junior commanding officers.

Calling the Kargil attack as a misadventure, the former Colonel in Pakistan army Ashfaq Hussain has claimed in his book that the Kargil war was the result of a plan hatched by Major General Javed Hassan, General Mehmood and General Aziz. Ashfaq Hussain said that these three officers convinced Musharaff to go ahead with the plans.

Acording to the book the Pakistani Army started executing the Kargil operation on December 18, 1998 when Captain Nadeem, Captain Ali and Hawaldaar Lalak Jaan crossed LoC to carry out a recce.

Hussain claimed that on 28th March 1999 General Pervez Mushrraf himself crossed 11 kms beyond the LoC on a helicopter. He was escorted by Colonel Amjad Shabbir at a location named Zakriya “Mustakar.” The book further says that senior army officials briefed Musharaff about the Kargil operation scheduled for 17 May 1999.

Apart from Colonel Hussain another former Army officer, Lt Gen (retired) Shahid Aziz, who headed the analysis wing of the ISI during the Kargil conflict, had also recently revealed that the Kargil operation was masterminded by a group of four generals led by Musharraf.

Responding to the exposures done by his own military men Musharaff said that 1999 Kargil operation was a "big success militarily.” If the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had not visited the US, the Pakistani Army would have "conquered" 300 square miles of India. Musharaff in an interview to a Pakistani TV channel blamed the then Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff for the Kargill defeat.

However, Colonel Ashfaq Hussain, who was then part of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate, denied that the Kargil was an excellent operation as there were no Indian troops on that location during winters.