How Israel helped India win the Kargil War? It came to India’s rescue when other global powers supported Pakistan

The Kargil War was an armed conflict between India and Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the district of Kargil district of Kashmir and elsewhere along the Line of Control (LOC). The Indian Army launched the Operation Vijay to clear the sector.

It was merely a border conflict, not a full-fledged war. When India vacated its higher peak posts during the winters of 1998-99, for returning after the passage of winters, the Pakistani military crossed the LoC and occupied these posts. In May 1999, large-scale military intrusions from Pakistan were detected by the Indian military and intelligence agencies in the Kargil–Dras sector of the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir, a Pakistani provocation that escalated into the Kargil war.

It took more than a week for the Indian army to understand and estimate the scale of the infiltration, and subsequently to develop a course of action to drive the invaders out. After three week, India was able to detect the infiltration and at last India was successful in pushing the Pakistani army behind the Line of Control (LoC).

Due to various treaties, several countries stepped back from helping India. So India was not able to gain an upper hand as India lacked few modern warfare equipments. But Israel came to India’s rescue. Let us see in what all ways Israel helped India in the Kargil war.

1. The first help for India came from Israel even though certain countries pressurised Israel not to help India.
2. The Kargil War was extended to several months and at a point of time the Indian army fell short of certain weapons. So it was Israel who rapidly sent ammunitions to the frontiers which helped India to push back the Pakistani Army.
3. India would have perhaps lost the war if Israel paid heed to United States’ pressure. Yes, United States ordered to delay the supply of weapons to India but Israel ignored the pressure tactics of a strong nation and supplied all the required ammunitions on time to India.
4. Indian didn’t divert all its strength on the Kargil war as it was not a full-fledged war. Mean while India had to see that it doesn’t lose many of its men also. So the surveillance materials of Israel were extensively used and this helped Indian Army to restrict the Pakistani force and push them back behind the border.
5. At certain point, Indian forces were on a back foot as there was no Laser Guided Missiles. So India had to again approach Israel and it did not delay to supply the missiles to India. Using those laser guided missiles, the Indian fighter jets destroyed several Pakistani bunkers and gave them severe causalities.
6. Mirage 2000H fighter planes completely put Pakistan on the back foot as the Mirage started its attack from June 1999. The accurate strikes of Mirage which embedded laser guided bombs were the contribution of Israel.
7. Along with this, the automated Aerial Vehicles of Israel helped India to locate the enemy hideouts.

When India started to dominate Kargil War and had nearly conquered all the posts occupied by Pakistani army, Nawaz Sharif feared that India will attack Pakistan. This led for Nawaz Sharif to rush to Washington to de-escalate the conflict, but US President Clinton refused to intervene until Pakistan had removed all forces from the Indian side of the Line of Control. Finally Pakistan agreed to remove all its forces from the Indian side of line of control and signed Washington accord on July 4 1999. This caused a massive humiliation to Pakistan.

The Indian Army celebrates the Kargil Vijay Diwas to commemorate the victory in the war against Pakistan on July 26thevery year.

In spite of the final diplomatic and military victory, the Kargil crisis led to an important debate over India’s defence and intelligence failures.

India and Israel has established a very good diplomatic relations. India has become one of the largest buyers of Israeli military hardware with annual defence deals worth over $1 billion. Prime Minister Narenda Modi will also visit Israel on July 4th on a two day visit.

“Wake up: the most important PM of the world is coming“, this is how a leading Israeli business daily described PM Modi. Israel is truly a great friend of India.

Source: Defencenewsindia