Uneasy in Kargil with Shells and Fear for Company

Uneasy in Kargil with Shells and Fear for Company
August 1999

The Statesman

“Victory may have been declared in Delhi but our war is not yet over,” says Habibullah, a National Conference supporter in Kargil town. “It is true the infiltrators have gone, but the shelling continues”.

A second campaigner chips in: “As far as our problem is concerned, it remains the same, except that both the frequency and accuracy of the shelling are much higher this year.”

”The only thing we want is the silence of the guns. India and Pakistan should do whatever it takes to put an end to this, by talking or anything else. How can we talk of the Army’s glorious victory here? True, they performed after the war began. But don’t the locals here know better than anyone else about the lapses earlier? Don’t they know how the Army was treating informants? Three people who had given information to the Army last year about infiltration were locked up. It was only when a senior officer was approached that they set up a post”.

If Operation Vijay is not a selling point for the NC, nor can it be one for the Congress. The party may have cashed in on people’s problems arising out of the “negligence of the Army,” but no one dares talk about it.

”The Army is too close here. If we start criticising their lapses they are likely to get angry,” said a Congress supporter bluntly, explaining why he cannot pick up his party president’s electoral gambit.

The overwhelming presence of the Army in this area tells two tales—as much of a war fought
and won as of one that has not begun yet. Heaps of used Bofors shells are strewn along the national highway, marking out old gun positions. New ones are being dug nearby, fresh equipment brought in everyday. Tents dot the landscape and convoys dominate the road, racing against time to beat the winter.

The presence of the Army has its flip side. In some places, houses deserted by people fleeing shells have been occupied. In others, the Army stands cheek by jowl with homes, bringing new fears.

There is fear the troops’ very presence might bring new volleys of shells. “Sankoo was a safe haven for the past three years for those driven from their homes by shelling. Now with the Army, the villagers are not so sure of their safety,” said a minister.

The new pattern of co-existence is still uneasy, and irritants have to be sorted out. “Initially, they were dragging people off roads and making them do the work of porters. Professors, headmasters, no one was spared. We had to intervene. Now we have asked the Army to secure the permission of the village lambardar—the elders—before taking anyone,” said the minister.

It is still too early to tell how Army presence will impact on the district.

The war is still too fresh in memory for anyone to reflect on it. The memorials are to soldiers who have died in other wars, at other times.

Captain Morh, where soldiers get off vehicles to salute, is a memorial to a Captain of the Engineers who died in 1954 while widening the road down which soldiers marched this May. It is still to early for memorials to be built for those who did not make the return journey.

Shelling this year has opened up new danger zones. Drass, which had never seen shelling, bore the brunt. It is barely three days since people have begun returning, but the district administration is braced for a possible renewed spell around polling day.

”We haven’t organised any election meetings here. People are too disturbed to listen to speeches. Those who have returned are preoccupied with repairing damaged homes, taking stock of their land and livestock,” said Ali, an NC office-bearer. His own shop in Drass’s main bazar is getting fresh window panes for the ones it lost to the shells.

If Drass is disinterested, Kargil town is too unsafe for meetings, said an NC worker. Shells could land close anytime. Muffled thuds in the evening tell of renewed assaults somewhere close by.

Come 5 September though, the people will vote. Even displaced residents show enthusiasm. Basheer, living with relatives in Minji since May, is one of them.

Basheer will cast his vote for the National Conference at his relocated polling booth. “The NC candidate is from Kargil this time. If we vote for him, Kargil will finally have a representative, a presence. Tell me, had you heard of Kargil before the war? That is why I must vote. The name should not be forgotten again”.