Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by deejay »

^^^ Thank You Shiv Sir, there are a few friends there in that list.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by shiv »

This is a good video - I loved the animation. It is actually only 9 minutes long, but the uploader has left a blank video "tail" of 25 minutes after the video ends :-?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ROU5glKLYw
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by shiv »

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/cms/index ... cle&id=758
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Indian Air Force (IAF) Remembers Squadron Leader Ahuja


Squadron Leader (Sqn Ldr) Ajay Ahuja of the Indian Air Force made the supreme sacrifice for the nation on 27 May 1999 during ‘OP Vijay’ while on a combat mission over Kashmir. The officer’s aircraft was hit by an enemy shoulder fired Surface to Air Missile (SAM) while he was attempting to locate a downed pilot in spite of being aware of the danger to his life owing to the existence of SAMs in the area.


This extremely courageous act involving immense risk to this life epitomises the tenacity and indomitable spirit of the Indian Fighter Pilot. Tragically, Ajay paid the price for his bravery. His aircraft was hit and damaged severely. Though the Officer ejected safely, he was killed by the enemy in captivity. The Officer will always be remembered as a courageous and selfless soldier who laid down his life without a second thought for his country and for his brothers in uniform.

Sqn Ldr Ajay Ahuja hailed from Kota in Rajasthan. He was an alumnus of the National Defence Academy and was commissioned in the IAF on 14 June 1985 as a fighter pilot. Over a span of fourteen years in various squadrons of the IAF, he served as an operational pilot on MiG-21 variants and on the MiG-23 Fighter bomber. He grew up in service to become top instructor with an experience of over 1000 hours spent in instructing ab-initio pilots. He was extremely popular among his pupils because of his patience and cheerful nature. A thorough professional, the Officer was the Flight Commander of the Golden Arrows. We salute this brave officer for his gallantry and draw inspiration from his dedication and bravery. His wife Mrs. Alka Ahuja and son Ankush survive him.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by shiv »

Here is my own little tribute to Sq Ldr Ajay Ahuja. I was going to make it go live on June 17th but I thought the anniversary of his death would be a good day to upload
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoGqRiIKXk4
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by Aditya_V »

Is that your voice doc ji?
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by shiv »

Aditya_V wrote:Is that your voice doc ji?
Yes - slightly modified by running it through ambient noise reduction software.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by shiv »

A good video from last year
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFsMRr0sHTI
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by johneeG »

Saars,
please provide a chronology of the battle events?
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by wig »

govt shuts doors on Kargil martyr Captain Saurabh Kalia
The Congress party on Monday criticised the stand taken by the NDA government at the Centre to not approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) with respected to the alleged torture and killing of Kargil martyr Captain Saurabh Kalia by Pakistani forces, terming it a 'disgrace' to soldiers sacrificing their lives for the nation.

"The Supreme Court had directed Government of India to pursue martyr Saurabh Kalia's matter in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The BJP government has been in power for more than one year now and they have not done anything. Now there are reports that they have decided to not go to the ICJ. This is a disgrace to martyrs," Congress leader PL Punia told ANI.

"They are trying to shield Pakistan. This is condemnable; we demand that the Supreme Court's order be followed and the matter be raised in the ICJ," he added.

The government has reportedly stated that it was not feasible to pursue the matter in the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

Captain Kalia, along with five other soldiers, was taken prisoner by Pakistani troops during the Kargil war in 1999. They were held captive and allegedly tortured before their bodies were handed back to India June 9, 1999.

This incident had caused an uproar across the nation, as the torturing of Prisoners of War (PoW) is against the Geneva Convention.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has consistently denied the charges of torture, stating that the soldiers may have died because of poor weather conditions.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... 497943.cms
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by Varoon Shekhar »

When the incident with Saurabh Kalia actually took place, at least 2 Indian commentators, Rita Manchanda and Siddharth Varadararajan, claimed that the accusation was essentially a hoax, or at best highly exaggerated. Has any Indian maintained this position? Or have these repented in any way, and acknowledged that the torture claim is now correct?
Last edited by Varoon Shekhar on 02 Jun 2015 20:55, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by arshyam »

Varoon Shekhar wrote:When the incident with Saurabh Kalia actually took place, at least 2 Indian commentators, Rita Manchanda and Siddarth Varadararajan, claimed that the accusation was essentially a hoax, or at best highly exaggerated.
One of them is rumoured to be a US citizen. So much for Indian commentary.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by ramana »

Varoon and Arshyam, Can either of you find those comments by those two journalists and link them here? Need to bring them to heel on social media.
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Post by Varoon Shekhar »

Ramana, amazingly, no links are displaying, because one can't believe that a simple Google search would come to naught!

Rita Manchanda's article on the subject probably first appeared in the "Economic and Political Weekly", sometime around 1999-2000. She cited Red Cross evidence to show that the Indian government was 'lying' about the torture of Kalia. That much I can remember.

S.Varadarajan I heard say this in person, in May-June 2000, when he visited Canada. He did admit that Kalia was 'shot' in the eye, but implied that it was in direct combat.

Yes, both of these individuals need to be taken to task, but it would be interesting to learn more about the examination the Red Cross performed, that caused Manchanda's reaction.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by ramana »

In 1999 I was so touched that I sent a condolence card to Dr. Kalia. He sent me a photostat copy of the Red Cross report which detailed the horrible tortures.
I don't know if I still have it.
Lets look around on the net. Someone would have archived it.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by ramana »

That's the one!!!!
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Post by Varoon Shekhar »

^^^
Wonder why Rita Manchanda would use this report to accuse the Indian government of 'lying' about the circumstances around Kalia's death. What was in this report that would cause her to say that?
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by shiv »

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Histo ... hadur.html
I was later to visit Kargil along with CAS and the army chief, when both went there to review the progress, half way through the two-month long conflict. The altitudes at which the Indian jawans and officers were fighting were simply awe inspiring. Having spent the major part of my career in Srinagar and Leh sector, those hills were not at all new for me. But I remembered the words of my seniors when I joined 114 Helicopter Unit in 1978 as a young flying officer (114 was later christened The Siachen Pioneers): “No harm will come your way if you respect the mountains. They are permanent, we are just transitory.” The Indian Army and the Indian Air Force got the tricolour back to where it belonged, above the hills of Dras and Kargil but the country paid a heavy price, as many of her sons never returned and quite a few were maimed for life. One can only marvel at those brave Indians, exemplified by the likes of Captain Vikram Batra who said, ‘yeh dil maange more’ and went up those daunting hills again for another mission, never to come back.

May your souls rest in peace, dear comrades, for you have done your duty, but let your selflessness trigger the conscience of our countrymen so that they too put India first before everything else. The nation owes you a debt of gratitude that can never measure up to your bravery and sacrifice. Post Script: Did my wife catch on to the May 25 incognito trip to Srinagar with the Air Chief? No she didn’t, as on returning home I quietly put back the jacket she had sent me after smuggling it in my briefcase. Next day, when the air strikes went in and started getting reported on national TV, she got the plot!;
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by shiv »

shiv wrote:Here is my own little tribute to Sq Ldr Ajay Ahuja. I was going to make it go live on June 17th but I thought the anniversary of his death would be a good day to upload
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoGqRiIKXk4
Today is the 16th anniversary of the destruction of the Pakistani supply camp at Muntho Dalo
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by Paul »

Bought the Book "A ridge too far" on Kargil. Must say the book is a disappointment compared to the author's earlier masterpiece "Lest we forget". The description in "Lest we forget" of defence of Srinagar by 1st Sikh under Ranjit Rai was described like happening before your own eyes. The writing in Rdge too far does not come up to those standards. One more thing is the disparaging way the Author has written about the Air force performance in Kargil. It seems like an ode to Gen VP Mallik like "Lest We Forget" was to Gen Harbaksh Singh.

One thing that comes to mind when you glance at the pictures in the two books is the sheer diversity that IA has achieved in the ranks since 1962. Earlier the soldiers were predominantly from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. Now the names show that they are from all over India. The "Martial Race" theory has truely been relegated to the Dustbin.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

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https://sonusmac.wordpress.com/2014/11/ ... d-article/
A conversation between a Soldier and Software Engineer in Shatabdhi Train

Vivek Pradhan was not a happy man. Even the plush comfort of the air-conditioned compartment of the Shatabdhi express could not cool his frayed nerves. He was the Project Manager and still not entitled to air travel. It was not the prestige he sought; he had tried to reason with the admin person, it was the savings in time. As PM, he had so many things to do!!

He opened his case and took out the laptop, determined to put the time to some good use.

“Are you from the software industry sir,” the man beside him was staring appreciatively at the laptop. Vivek glanced briefly and mumbled in affirmation, handling the laptop now with exaggerated care and importance as if it were an expensive car.

“You people have brought so much advancement to the country, Sir. Today everything is getting computerized. ”

“Thanks,” smiled Vivek, turning around to give the man a look. He always found it difficult to resist appreciation. The man was young and stockily built like a sportsman. He looked simple and strangely out of place in that little lap of luxury like a small town boy in a prep school. He probably was a railway sportsman making the most of his free traveling pass.

“You people always amaze me,” the man continued, “You sit in an office and write something on a computer and it does so many big things outside.”

Vivek smiled deprecatingly. Naive ness demanded reasoning not anger. “It is not as simple as that my friend. It is not just a question of writing a few lines. There is a lot of process that goes behind it.”

For a moment, he was tempted to explain the entire Software Development Lifecycle but restrained himself to a single statement. “It is complex, very complex.”

“It has to be. No wonder you people are so highly paid,” came the reply.

This was not turning out as Vivek had thought. A hint of belligerence crept into his so far affable, persuasive tone. ”

Everyone just sees the money. No one sees the amount of hard work we have to put in. Indians have such a narrow concept of hard work. Just because we sit in an air-conditioned office, does not mean our brows do not sweat. You exercise the muscle; we exercise the mind and believe me that is no less taxing.”

He could see, he had the man where he wanted, and it was time to drive home the point.

“Let me give you an example. Take this train. The entire railway reservation system is computerized. You can book a train ticket between any two stations from any of the hundreds of computerized booking centers across the country.

Thousands of transactions accessing a single database, at a time concurrently; data integrity, locking, data security. Do you understand the complexity in designing and coding such a system?”

The man was awestruck; quite like a child at a planetarium. This was something big and beyond his imagination.

“You design and code such things.”

“I used to,” Vivek paused for effect, “but now I am the Project Manager.”

“Oh!” sighed the man, as if the storm had passed over,

“So your life is easy now.”

This was like the last straw for Vivek. He retorted, “Oh come on, does life ever get easy as you go up the ladder. Responsibility only brings more work.

Design and coding! That is the easier part. Now I do not do it, but I am responsible for it and believe me, that is far more stressful. My job is to get the work done in time and with the highest quality.

To tell you about the pressures, there is the customer at one end, always changing his requirements, the user at the other, wanting something else, and your boss, always expecting you to have finished it yesterday.”

Vivek paused in his diatribe, his belligerence fading with self-realization. What he had said, was not merely the outburst of a wronged man, it was the truth. And one need not get angry while defending the truth.

“My friend,” he concluded triumphantly, “you don’t know what it is to be in the Line of Fire”

The man sat back in his chair, his eyes closed as if in realization. When he spoke after sometime, it was with a calm certainty that surprised Vivek.

“I know sir…. I know what it is to be in the Line of Fire…….”

He was staring blankly, as if no passenger, no train existed, just a vast expanse of time.

“There were 30 of us when we were ordered to capture Point 4875 in the cover of the night.

The enemy was firing from the top.

There was no knowing where the next bullet was going to come from and for whom.

In the morning when we finally hoisted the tricolour at the top only 4 of us were alive.”

“You are a…?”

“I am Subedar Sushant from the 13 J&K Rifles on duty at Peak 4875 in Kargil. They tell me I have completed my term and can opt for a soft assignment.

But, tell me sir, can one give up duty just because it makes life easier.

On the dawn of that capture, one of my colleagues lay injured in the snow, open to enemy fire while we were hiding behind a bunker.

It was my job to go and fetch that soldier to safety. But my captain sahib refused me permission and went ahead himself.

He said that the first pledge he had taken as a Gentleman Cadet was to put the safety and welfare of the nation foremost followed by the safety and welfare of the men he commanded… ….his own personal safety came last, always and every time.”

“He was killed as he shielded and brought that injured soldier into the bunker. Every morning thereafter, as we stood guard, I could see him taking all those bullets, which were actually meant for me. I know sir….I know, what it is to be in the Line of Fire.”

Vivek looked at him in disbelief not sure of how to respond. Abruptly, he switched off the laptop.

It seemed trivial, even insulting to edit a Word document in the presence of a man for whom valor and duty was a daily part of life; valour and sense of duty which he had so far attributed only to epical heroes.

The train slowed down as it pulled into the station, and Subedar Sushant picked up his bags to alight.

“It was nice meeting you sir.”

Vivek fumbled with the handshake.

This hand… had climbed mountains, pressed the trigger, and hoisted the tricolour. Suddenly, as if by impulse, he stood up at attention and his right hand went up in an impromptu salute.

It was the least he felt he could do for the country.
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by member_28860 »

Today is the birthday of Maha Vir Chakra Maj. Padampani Acharya (21/06/1968 - 29/06/1999).
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by shiv »

Cross post
Shaun wrote:Juggad or improvisation of IAF during kargil war ( Mirage 2K )

1. Innovations like cheating the computers, for different than authorized weapon carriage, were commendable: Speaks of tweaking the software of its mission computer ( French help ???)

2. The lasing time of the laser pods was altered manually with good results: Does it have manual setting mode ?? :D

3. There were no fuzes available for the 1000lb bombs, so pistol fuzes were modified and used effectively: Resident experts can explain .

4. Clearance for carriage of 1000lbs indigeneous bombs was done at Gwalior, the home base of the Mirage 2000 aircraft.

5.There were other innovations like using the "laser designator pod" for recce. The largest logistics camps at Muntho Dalo in the Batalik sector and Pt 4388 in the Mashkoh sector were identified through this method and neutralised effectively.

6.The Mirage 2000 aircraft flew a total of 500 missions with only three drops outs. What does it mean ???


credit
http://www.dailyo.in/politics/kargil-vi ... /5182.html
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by rsingh »

Shiv Saar thanks for posting the "Conversation on Shatabdi ".
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by wig »

The Kargil Trigger: What has it changed, by Lt Gen SA Hasnain
excerpts
Everyone knows Kargil was an order of battle and tasking blunder with the Srinagar based 15 Corps looking after threats in Eastern Ladakh, Siachen, Kargil, Kashmir LoC (infiltration) and the Valley based militancy, then running into its tenth year. All this with a negligible increment to the HQ staff. Everyone’s attention was on the Valley, the Valley’s LOC segment or Siachen; who would be bothered about Kargil. Operation VIJAY brought a semblance of balance to the deployment and response mechanism. First, 8 Mountain Division embedded itself in the Kargil sector where a single brigade was earlier located. Second, the raising of Headquarters 14 Corps for Ladakh ensured that the iconic 15 Corps now remains responsible only for the Valley (LoC, counter infiltration and counter insurgency). Perhaps that has helped tremendously in turning the tide of militancy/terror. With the Chinese getting more itchy and aggressive in Eastern Ladakh we now have a full division catering for that threat. So in sum we are now much more balanced in disposition with Siachen, Kargil and Eastern Ladakh the responsibility of 14 Corps.
In terms of intelligence, which was the big ticket failure in 1999 I can certify from experience that there is much greater care about the whole intelligence cycle ending with dissemination to the right quarters within the acceptable time frame. Measures to carry out surveillance of winter vacated areas through wide area surveillance and observation (WASO) missions by helicopters are executed with far greater vigor. There is a great deal of night surveillance equipment which was acquired on fast track and its availability has added effectiveness in the counter infiltration operations.
Yet, despite all this the feasibility of the adversary managing surprise is always live because it is militarily impossible to deploy manpower at every meter along the LoC. This may sound apologetic to the less informed but frankly any military mind would reinforce the unpredictability of operations at the LoC. The one warning the Army needs to heed is that the thermal imaging equipment which was acquired on fast track after Kargil is now at the end of its life cycle; it has been used beyond capacity. However, not much has been done to acquire replacements in adequate quantity. Perhaps this needs to be done on fast track again. The rotary wing support in such operations is never enough. No doubt, both the Army and Air Force allocate greater priority to J&K/ Northern Command because of the nature of operations, no complaints on this. However, this is at the cost of other sectors and frequent redeployment for disaster management every time a tragedy occurs; that is wasteful and avoidable. The faster the two Services and the MoD can get their act together for the acquisition of the elusive helicopters the greater will be the effect on operations and prevention of intelligence failures.
It must be added here that in dealing with Pakistan and its protégés the element of unpredictability is extremely high. As a force the Pakistan Army has high propensity for risk and its commanders have a reputation for outstanding initiation of conflict but terrible handling and direction towards termination. The outcome can usually be predicted as potential failure; as such when dealing with such an adversary the most bizarre actions can be expected along with unpredictability thus making intelligence assessments extremely challenging.
The Kargil Review Committee (KRC) made a plethora of recommendations, all of which are not possible to discuss within this space. However, those pertaining to personnel management have been largely achieved including reducing the age and service profile of Commanding Officers (COs). While the effect of this has been extremely positive in the field the overall management of select rank vacancies has upset the applecart of morale among different Arms and Services which needs to be revisited even as a court case is pending on the same. What has not been achieved and was never recommended by the KRC is the dire need for better management of senior ranks in the Army. General Officers are serving at higher ranks for far too short a period, insufficient to acquire experience and skills of higher defence management. Serving 33 years up to one star rank and only 6.5 to 7 years at two and three star ranks does not inspire confidence in the handling of higher direction of war. Brave efforts need to be made in this area. For information, the Pakistan Army’s General Officers are promoted at service levels six years less than ours. The officer shortage is improving but very slowly. The promotion to select rank at lower service levels is also resulting in officers getting overlooked for promotion earlier. The cascading effect is that there are lesser officers to serve frontline units and the cadre of overlooked/non-empanelled officers has bloated. Thus while strength of the Army’s officer cadre may enhance the low availability for field duties is resulting in a number of units being below even hard scale levels. Artificial satisfaction is achieved by keeping strength of units in field areas at above hard scales but the result is that frontline units in peace stations are undermanned. It is these units which have to mobilize for war at short notice, the units in field are already in near mobilized mode.
The KRC’s recommendations towards restructuring of the MoD to achieve integration with the three Services received only cosmetic attention leading to a one off action to create the HQ Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) which was supposedly half way house to full and final integration. The latter continues to elude and in the light of enhancing threats that the Nation faces it needs to be revisited at the earliest. Entry of uniformed officers into appointments of the MoD is now almost mandatory.
On the equipment and ammunition front the situation is apparently damning. While a new Defence Procurement Process is shortly to be announced there is very little time to translate the decisions of the Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) into action. The Army, in particular needs to revisit the entire concept of building expertise among its officers; longer tenures and repeat postings into equipment related appointments will speed up the processing of long pending cases but even more than that a higher level of trust is required to be reposed in the officers managing these appointments. On the ammunition side, the transparency of information has created a stir although the problem has existed for long. Imported ammunition is expensive and indigenously manufactured is prone to defects leading to high percentage of rejection. The only solution is quite obviously higher accountability of the ordnance factories and greater investment in imports. Both are extremely difficult challenges which will fester for some time. Decision makers will have to decide the risk they are willing to undertake by keeping the Army short of its minimum acceptable risk levels.
The picture is not that grim. No Army can remain at hundred percent levels of equipment, personnel and training. This is always work in progress. The Army’s top brass is competent and the Government appears sensitized to the needs but there is much more energy required in the field of equipment acquisition and some in personnel management. Competent leadership with longer tenures in appointments will definitely enhance the quality of decision making.
The nation needs to be aware and more informed and intellectual interaction is necessary in the public domain to keep our Armed Forces ticking and our adversaries wary.
http://www.dailyexcelsior.com/the-kargi ... t-changed/
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Re: Kargil Vijay Diwas Mubarak

Post by Singha »

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17 Garhwal.
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