Islamabad. Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff General Syed Asim Munir has acknowledged the direct role of the Pakistani army in the 1999 Kargil war against India. Munir mentioned the three wars with India as well as Kargil in his Defence Day speech. He paid tribute to the martyred soldiers of the Pakistani armed forces.
He told those present at the GHQ that be it the wars of 1948, 1965, 1971, the Kargil war between Pakistan and India or the war in Siachen, thousands of people sacrificed their lives and were martyred for the security of the country.
Munir’s statement is being considered as the first-of-its-kind confession by a sitting army chief on the direct role of Pakistan Army in the Kargil war. This is a stance that Islamabad has been avoiding for the last 25 years.
Till now Pakistan has been denying its involvement in the 1999 war and claiming that it was an action by the Mujahideen from Kashmir. Former army chief General Pervez Musharraf always claimed that the Kargil operation was a local action.