The
Kargil War (
kārgil yuddh),(
kārgil jang), also known as the
Kargil conflict, was an
armed conflict between
India and
Pakistan that took place between May and July 1999 in the
Kargil district of
Kashmir and elsewhere along the
Line of Control (LOC). The conflict is also referred to as
Operation Vijay (Victory in
Hindi) which was the name of the Indian operation to clear the Kargil sector.It is also sometimes referred to as
Operation Vijay Kargil so as to distinguish it from
Operation Vijay , the operation by the Military of India that led to the capture of Goa, Daman and Diu and Anjidiv Islands.
The cause of the war was the infiltration of Pakistani soldiers and Kashmiri militants into positions on the Indian side of the LOC, which serves as the
de facto border between the two states. During the initial stages of the war, Pakistan blamed the fighting entirely on independent Kashmiri insurgents, but documents left behind by
casualties and later statements by Pakistan's
Prime Minister and
Chief of Army Staff showed involvement of Pakistani
paramilitary forces, led by General
Ashraf Rashid.Nawaz, Shuja,
Crossed Swords: Pakistan, Its Army, and the Wars Within, p. 420 (2007) The
Indian Army, later on supported by the
Indian Air Force, recaptured a majority of the positions on the Indian side of the LOC...
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