DRASS, India, July 26, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Indian soldiers and top brass
gathered Friday in the remote Himalayan foothills to commemorate a battle
fondly remembered among compatriots for imposing a humiliating military
defeat on arch-rival Pakistan.

The 1999 Kargil conflict was the last major battle between two nuclear-armed
foes who have fought numerous wars since their partition into two nations on
independence from British colonial rule.

It came just a year after tit-for-tat atomic weapons tests by the neighbours
spurred international alarm that the confrontation risked tipping into all-
out nuclear war.

Friday's ceremony marks the 25th anniversary of the conflict's end, when
sustained diplomatic pressure from Washington and elsewhere forced Pakistan's
withdrawal.

"Times change, seasons change, but the names of those who give their lives
for the country live forever," Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who laid a
wreath for India's fallen soldiers, told the crowd at a memorial for the
conflict in the town of Drass.

"India was trying for peace at the time. But Pakistan once again showed its
untrustable face."

The high-altitude confrontation began when Pakistan-backed militants crossed
into Indian territory at Kargil, a remote and high-altitude outpost on the
countries' shared frontier.

At least 1,000 people were killed over the following 10 weeks, but the
conflict ended with no changes to the status quo along the border.

Pakistan withdrew after severe pressure from Washington, alarmed by
intelligence reports showing Islamabad had deployed part of its nuclear
arsenal nearer to the conflict.

The aftermath roiled Pakistan's establishment, with then-prime minister Nawaz
Sharif blaming his army chief Pervez Musharaf for igniting the conflict
without his knowledge or approval.

Months later, Musharaf overthrew Sharif in a coup in one of Pakistani
military's periodic political interventions.

- 'We are stronger' -

India and Pakistan have fought three major wars and countless border
conflicts since they were partitioned out of the Indian subcontinent in 1947.

They remain deeply at odds over control of the restive territory of Kashmir,
divided between the two countries and claimed in full by both.

Kargil is feted as one of India's greatest military triumphs over its
perennial foe.

"We are stronger economically, military-wise and technologically," General
Ved Prakash Malik, India's army chief at the time of the conflict, told AFP.

"They have to realise the difference that has come about the way they are
being ruled by the army and the way we are being ruled as a democracy."

Asked about the likelihood of a conflict similar to the Kargil confrontation
in the future, Mailk said Pakistan would not "dare to try that again".