New Delhi: A former Pakistani Air Force (PAF) officer has called the bluff of his country's politicians and military on the Kargil battle, ahead of the 10th anniversary of the 1999 conflict in the icy heights of Jammu and Kashmir.
Retired Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail, a former Director of Operations with PAF when the two countries fought a two-month-long battle and the person who had interrogated IAF pilot K Nachiketa after his MiG-27 had crashed in Pakistan, has come out with all the details of Pakistani military's machinations to execute its vicious plan to hoodwink Indian troops.
In the latest issue of Vayu Aerospace and Defence Review, a magazine published by a private firm, Tufail has written that General Pervez Musharraf, 10 Corps Commander Lt Gen Mehmud Ahmad and Northern Areas Commander Maj Gen Javed Hasan -- the "trio" as he describes them -- had kept the plans to themselves, not even taking their commanders lower down the hierarchical order into confidence.
However, Tufail, who had written a similar and almost verbatim article for 'Defence and Security of India' magazine's February issue this year, said the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was in the know of the Army's plans, but had not approved it in toto.
The same trio, in their previous ranks and appointments, had put forth a similar plan on paper to wrest control of Siachen, which was brought to the notice of Sharif's predecessor late Benazir Bhutto. But she was "well-versed in international affairs and all too intelligent to be taken in by the chicanery," Tufail said.