Back to Kargil: Lessons learnt in Batalik

Batalik sector: For Colonel Ajith Singh, the terrain Batalik is familiar but the setting now is completely different.

Ten years ago, as a Major he was thrown into the thick of the battle here. And memories of that period come rushing back.

"The enemy was sitting up there. They were firing all kinds of weapons, artillery, mortar, small arms - it took us more than a month to evict them," he recalls.

The first intrusions of the war were in fact detected in the Batalik sector but in 1999 this sector was inaccessible for the media since there were no roads that time.

Back in 1999, the Indian army did not have any permanent deployment in this sector but once the intrusions were detected, troops fought hard under hostile enemy fire to recapture the peaks.

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A decade down the line, the Batalik-Kargil sector has witnessed quality improvement in infrastructure and troop deployment; roads have come up.

"Now we virtually occupy all heights. There are no gaps. Kargil is as safe as any part of the country. There's no question of a repeat of Kargil 1999 happening now," says Major General Suresh Khajuria, GOC, 8 Mountain Div.

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Over 400 men lost their lives reclaiming Kargil and Batalik peaks. The army says it was a costly but valuable lesson learnt.