PAKISTAN/INDIA: REUTERS CAMERA CREW FILM RARE FOOTAGE OF MUJAHIDEEN FIGHTERS IN THEIR CAMP IN REMOTE REGION OF KARGIL /61 YEAR-OLD FLAG MAKER IS GIVEN JOB OF PREPARING SHROUDS FOR INDIAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN KASHMIR

Record ID: 1375217

  • Title: PAKISTAN/INDIA: REUTERS CAMERA CREW FILM RARE FOOTAGE OF MUJAHIDEEN FIGHTERS IN THEIR CAMP IN REMOTE REGION OF KARGIL /61 YEAR-OLD FLAG MAKER IS GIVEN JOB OF PREPARING SHROUDS FOR INDIAN SOLDIERS KILLED IN KASHMIR
  • Date: 30th June 1999
  • Summary: KARGIL, PAKISTAN SIDE OF KASHMIR (JUNE 30,1999) (REUTERS) SLV A GROUP OF MUJAHIDEEN FIGHTERS CARRYING ARTILLERY VARIOUS OF SEPARATISTS CLIMBING THE HILLS (3 SHOTS) VARIOUS OF SEPARATISTS OFFERING PRAYERS (3 SHOTS) KARGIL, PAKISTAN SIDE OF KASHMIR (JULY 1, 1999)(REUTERS) VARIOUS PAKISTAN TROOPS FIRING MISSILES (3 SHOTS) PAN ARMY OFFICER WALKING WITH JOURNALISTS SV ARMY OFFICER TALKING TO JOURNALISTS /LV HILLSIDE SCU (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAKISTAN ARMY OFFICIAL "These are the positions which are here for the last many decades. Since partition these positions are here. So there is no question of going back. We will stay but we will naturally do ceasefire if Indians also don't fire on our positions." AERIAL OF MOUNTAINS
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2005 19:14
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KARGIL, PAKISTAN SIDE OF KASHMIR; AND AMBALA, HARYANA, AND NEW DELHI, INDIA
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: Conflict,General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8F9KSG5IOG8M1IVUSQFRZESMM
  • Aspect Ratio: 4:3
  • Story Text: In a rare opportunity, a Reuters team has been able to
    film Mujahideen fighters at their camp in a remote region of
    Kargil on the Pakistani side of Kashmir.The Mujahideen has
    never before allowed a television crew to film them.

    As the Pakistanis were digging in, India prepared to send
    reinforcements into the region.

    Despite incessant Indian artillery barrages and jet
    bombings, as well as big power moves to dislodge them,
    guerrillas on strategic icy heights in north Kashmir plan to
    stay there.

    Sources in militant groups facing an intense Indian ground
    and air offensive for about two months say their fighters went
    to the northern Kargil-Drass mountains under a new strategy in
    what they call a Jihad (holy war) to liberate Kashmir.

    Mujahideen groups say they do not recognise the LOC (line
    of control) agreed between the two governments and will not
    pull back even if Islamabad asks them to by acquiescing to
    pressure.

    India says the intruders are Pakistani regular soldiers
    and what it calls "Afghan mercenaries", while Western
    diplomats say the force includes troops from the Pakistan
    army's Northern Light Infantry -- charges Pakistan and the
    Mujahideen deny.

    The Mujahideen acknowledge the presence in their ranks of
    young Pakistani volunteers and Afghan veterans of the war, but
    say most of the fighters are Kashmiris, some with Afghan war
    experience.

    Pakistan vows to honour the LOC, but calls it a narrow
    approach to isolate Kargil from Indian intrusions and the
    Kashmir dispute, over which the two countries have fought two
    of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

    Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations brought
    journalists up to an area of Kargil where they claim to have
    gunned down two MiG fighter jets, which they say intruded into
    Pakistani airspace on June 28.They also showed the positions,
    artillery shells and pieces of Indian-fired missiles from the
    shootout.

    New Delhi regards the whole of Kashmir as an integral
    part of India.But Islamabad wants the predominantly Moslem
    Kashmiris to decide in a U.N.-mandated plebiscite whether to
    join Islamic Pakistan or Hindu-majority India.

    In India, a man who has been supplying emblems and flags
    to the defence forces for the past four decades, has been
    assigned the job of preparing shrouds for Indian soldiers
    killed in Kargil operations.

    Gurdeep Singh, a 61-year-old maker of flags and other army
    insignia, has been kept busy over the last few weeks to meet a
    sudden surge in demand.

    He has about 50 orders for flags -- to be laid on the
    coffins of Indian soldiers killed fighting infiltrators in
    Kashmir.

    Indian defence officials said on Thursday 207 Indians had
    been killed and 389 wounded so far.

    Singh, who came to India from the Pakistani town of
    Sialkot during partition in 1947, says he has been making
    Indian tricolour flags since 1956.

    But up to now, those flags have mainly been for
    independence day celebrations and other ceremonial occasions.

    Undeterred by the loss of 21 soldiers in Kargil early
    this week, the Rajputana Rifles, one of the ethnic regiments
    of the Indian army, has sent another 350 recruits, some as
    young as 16, to the restive Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir
    where Indian forces have launched one of the biggest
    operations to flush out Islamic infiltrators.

    About 200 of these newly inducted soldiers were given a
    ceremonial send-off at the Rifles' base in New Delhi on
    Friday.

    The recruits, who are categorised as "combat riflemen",
    underwent a 34-week-long rigorous training, including high
    altitude warfare, before they were sent to Kargil.

    Meanwhile, a large number of school children took part in
    a blood donation camp for the wounded soldiers.

    The camp was organised by the Air Force Wives Welfare
    Association.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register