The Kargil war
Kargil, Ladakh
Pakistani troops occupy heights on India's side of the Line of Control above Kargil; by 26 July 1999 the Indian Army has retaken them.
The intrusions, discovered in May 1999, overlooked the Srinagar-Leh highway in the Mushkoh, Drass, Kaksar and Batalik sectors. Operation Vijay retook Tololing in June and Tiger Hill in early July, and the air force struck the heights without crossing the Line of Control. India's official count of soldiers killed is 527; the government's 2025 backgrounder gives 545.
The war was fought to restore the line agreed at Simla in 1972, and it did: the map did not change. Pakistan first described the intruders as Kashmiri fighters, and its army chief publicly acknowledged the army's part only in September 2024. Whether Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif or the army under General Pervez Musharraf drove the operation has been disputed between them since.
- war