Pakistan and the Neighbourhood - Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality - page 320

then army chief of staff, who made himself president. About seven months before he re-
moved Sharif, Musharraf staged a mini-invasion in the mountains above the Indian town
of Kargil, between the Kashmir capital of Srinagar and the Buddhist region of Ladakh. 15
Musharraf claims that Sharif was briefed three times about the plans, but Sharif has al-
ways insisted that he was not told in advance, and that he had not therefore been deceiving
India's prime minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, when he welcomed him on a dramatic peace-
making trip on 20 February, 15 days after one of Sharif's alleged Briefings on 5 Febru-
ary. Vajpayee crossed the land border at Wagah, between the Indian city of Amritsar and
Lahore in Pakistan, and was feted by Sharif and other leaders, though the visit was boycot-
ted by the armed service chiefs including Musharraf. 16 The two prime ministers initiated a
diplomatically significant cross-border bus service and signed the Lahore Declaration that
started with the words: 'Sharing a vision of peace and stability between their countries '. 17
If Sharif was briefed on 5 February, I missed the scoop of my career. I had joined him on
a day-long helicopter tour so that I could catch a quick interview on the country's politics
and economy for Fortune magazine. We landed at Kel, a Pakistan army camp some 6,000ft
up in the Himalayas, beside the Line of Control. I was introduced to Musharraf, who looked
at me quizzically, and I chatted to more approachable army officers, asking about the mood
in the country and the government's stability, without a thought that I ought to be checking
on an invasion. Musharraf took Sharif into a conference room with other aides and officers
for what I was told was a routine border Briefing, and it lasted about an hour or so. They
then went for prayers in the base's mosque - it was a Friday - while I chatted to some of
the more Westernized looking officers who declined to join them, and we flew off.
Musharraf started secretly sending infiltrators (out of uniform) across the LoC a few
weeks later, and maybe had already been doing so for two months according to some re-
ports. 18 In his autobiography, Line of Fire, he says that the aim was to 'fill large gaps
between our defensive positions', and that this had been approved in January 1999. 19 'Free-
dom fighters' were moving across the border 'from March onwards' and by 'the end of
April' over 100 new posts had been secured by Pakistani troops. India's intelligence and
military failures meant that the Indian army did not react to what was happening till early
May. A border battle followed, involving 1,000 fighters from Pakistan (its own troops and
Afghan and other Islamic militants or 'freedom fighters') that brought the two nuclear
powers to the brink of war. The action ended when Sharif went to see President Bill Clin-
ton in Washington in July and agreed, apparently contentedly, to withdraw Pakistani troops,
having already been refused help on a visit to Beijing, which remained neutral. 20
Since then, Sharif has repeatedly said he was not informed in advance, 21 b ut Musharraf
claimed in Line of Fire 22 t hat he had been briefed on three occasions, the second time at
Kel. 23 An Indian report in 2006, based on alleged Indian phone tap transcripts, however