NEW DELHI: Indian Air Force pilots were minutes away from escalating the Kargil war with bombing missions on Pakistani bases but they abandoned the plans for which there is no known official explanation, NDTV said on Tuesday.

“In the early hours of June 13, 1999, at the height of the Kargil war, Indian Air Force fighter pilots were minutes away from launching a full-fledged air attack deep inside Pakistan. Targets had been assigned, route maps finalised, personal revolvers to be carried by pilots had been loaded with ammunition and Pakistani currency collected, for use if pilots had to eject on the other side of the Line of Control and orchestrate an escape,” the news channel said in a report on its website. It quoted exclusive access to documented plans for the claim.

The close call followed the collapsed talks in Delhi between Jaswant Singh, then Indian foreign minister, and his Pakistani counterpart, Sartaj Aziz.

On a mission to negotiate the end of the war to Delhi, Mr Aziz had been given clear terms — “withdraw Pakistani intruders from the Kargil mountains, abandon the demand for redrawing the Line of Control or de facto border in Kashmir, urgently restore the status quo by accepting the Line of Control as it had been defined for decades, and punish those who tortured six Indian soldiers, including Captain Saurabh Kalia, whose mutilated body had been returned with the bodies of the jawans he was leading in an operation in north Kashmir when they were captured by Pakistani soldiers,” NDTV said.

“At 0430 on 13th [June] morning, we reported to the sqn [squadron], ready for war. But it was NO GO — EXORs [Execution Orders] had not been received. We stood on standby till morning, then finally stood down at 1230,” NDTV quoted an official diary as saying.

The TV report said there was no explanation for the change of mind, but stressed that Pakistan’s F-16s were not the only danger to the Indian plans. “India’s fighter pilots were acutely aware of the threat posed by French-made Crotale and Chinese-made HQ2B surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) meant to destroy incoming Indian aircraft. With a range of 10km, Crotale SAMs would fly towards the Indian fighters at a speed of more than twice the speed of sound if they locked on to their targets.

“And the Chinese HQ2B was no less a threat. With a large 190kg warhead, the missile could engage targets more than 20km away, flying towards incoming Indian jets at a speed of 1,150 metres per second. If the missile was close to an Indian jet, its “proximity fuse” would go off triggering the warhead which would explode. No Indian fighter would likely survive the blast.”

However, at the time of the Kargil war, the Indian Air Force had a distinct advantage. Not only did India have more fighter jets than Pakistan, it was also armed with better weapons to intercept the an attack from the Pakistani side.

Published in Dawn, July 20th, 2016