PML-N demands judicial probe into Kargil conflict

ISLAMABAD: Amid claims that a group of four Generals led by the then army chief Pervez Musharraf masterminded the Kargil operation, Pakistan's main opposition PML-N, which was the ruling party at that time, today demanded a judicial inquiry into the 1999 conflict with India.

"Following the latest revelations by a close aide of Musharraf, there is no option but to seek the formation of a judicial commission to conduct an inquiry into the Kargil episode," senior PML-N leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told reporters outside Parliament.

"Though more than 500 Pakistani soldiers, including young and senior officers, were killed in Kargil, there has been no inquiry till today," he said.

In contrast, India had already carried out an inquiry into the incident and made its report public years ago, he remarked.

The comments by Khan, who is Leader of Opposition in the lower house of Parliament, came in the wake of fresh disclosures by Lt Gen (retd) Shahid Aziz, who headed the analysis wing of the ISI during the Kargil conflict.

Aziz, who has written a book about his days in the army, has told the media that the Kargil operation was masterminded by a group of four generals led by Musharraf.

He has said details of the operation were hidden from other military commanders and the exact number of Pakistani casualties was still not known.

"It was a failure because we had to hide its objectives and results from our own people and the nation. It had no purpose, no planning and nobody knows even today how many soldiers lost their lives," Aziz said in a recent interview.

Khan said an independent inquiry into the Kargil conflict would ensure that no military officer could act in the same manner in future. "Four generals conducted the operation like thieves while hiding things from the army and the government."

A PML-N government headed by party chief Nawaz Sharif was in power at the time of the conflict in early 1999.