R Krishna Das
Confined to a wheel-chair in foreign shores thousands of miles away from home, battling serious diseases, embittered and without friends is how General Pervez Musharraf—the villain of the Kargil War—is now living.
India celebrates with pride the Kargil Vijay Diwas today across the country to commemorate the glorious victory of Indian Army in the Kargil heights against Pakistan that coveted to seize it duplicitously. The Indian Army began Operation Vijay on May 3, 1999 and in less than three months, flushed out the Pakistani troops from the positions that they had occupied. The victory was declared on July 26.
While India remembers and acknowledges its brave hearts and their exemplary courage and heroic act, Pakistan estranges and abuses the man who orchestrated the cowardly act. General Musharraf is literally living in disgrace.
General Musharraf caused so much bloodshed on both sides and sent his troops to certain death only to assuage his ego. Neither the then Pakistani Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif nor the Pakistani Air Force and Navy had any knowledge of the operation. The Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) was also caught unaware. With a handful of trusted aides in the Army, referred to as Kargil Clique now in Pakistan, Musharraf planned the operation with a mindless misconception that the Indian Army would not respond.
He underestimated the bravery and courage of Indian Army officials and soldiers. The preparation was suicidal as they failed to cater for the logistics or the safe withdrawal of the men sent in. The soldiers from the Northern Light Infantry (NLI) manned by the troops from Gilgit-Baltistan were used as cannon fodder. Literally, Musharraf pushed his men straight in the jaws of death.
Musharraf however saved his skin by staging a coup to oust Nawaz Sharif and ruled as a dictator. He became Pakistan’s 10th president after the 1999 coup and held the office till 2008. Musharraf was sentenced to death in absentia by a special court on December 17, 2019 in a treason case. The PML-N government filed a treason case against Musharraf in 2007 over its decision to impose a non-constitutional emergency. In 2016, he went to Dubai for treatment but did not return to Pakistan.
Musharraf had never anticipated such an outrageous exit. Such is his respect in his own country that people are abusing him. A citizen wrote in twitter that Musharraf had sent thugs to torture the Chief Justice of Pakistan, and then someone reminded him that Musharraf, along with the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, had accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of plotting to kill 48 people in Karachi. People are accusing Musharraf of ‘selling Pakistan to the US in dollars’.
In March this year, a latest picture of Musharraf went viral in the social media. His condition appeared terrible. He sat in a wheelchair and was very weak. Musharraf had been combating intolerable and incurable diseases.
