NEW DELHI - During the Kargil war in 1999, the Indian Air Force (IAF) narrowly missed bombing a Pakistani army forward base of Gulteri that was hosting the current and the then Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and then Pakistan Army chief General Pervez Musharraf, the Indian Express reported Monday.
According to the daily, an IAF Jaguar attack aircraft had targeted a forward base of the Pakistani army at the precise moment that Sharif and Musharraf happened to be present at the site. However, a second Jaguar jet, which was supposed to execute the actual bombing, dropped its payload outside the targeted area and away from the base after being instructed to do so.
Sharif and Musharraf's presence at the base, at around 8.45 am on June 24, 1999, which coincided with the IAF bombing run, was confirmed through an official document, claims the Indian Express.
Citing the official Government of India document, the report said that the first Jaguar, unaware at that time of Sharif or Musharaff's presence at the base, used its laser targeting system to take aim at the Gulteri base across the Line of Control (LoC). However, the report added, an IAF air commodore advised the Jaguar pilot to not hit the original target. Subsequently, the bomb was dropped on the Indian side of the LoC.
“On 24 June 1999, Jaguar CLDS (Cockpit Laser Designation System) engaged Point 4388. The pilot had lased over Gulteri across LoC but the bomb did not reach the target as it was released outside the laser basket,” says the document of the Government of India. It then notes, in bold type, that “Later, it was ascertained that the PM of Pakistan, Mr Nawaz Sharif, was present at Gulteri when the target was attacked.”
On that day, Sharif, accompanied by Musharraf, was on his first visit to forward areas along the LoC in Shakma sector. Air Marshal Vinod Patney (retd), who was then the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the IAF’s Western Air Command, and directly responsible for the air operations in the Kargil War, told The Indian Express about the incident of June 24, 1999: “It was a target in Mushkoh Valley, where a logistics dump was seen by the Jaguar aircraft. The first Jaguar lased against the target and the second Jaguar was to fire a laser-guided bomb. The captain of the lasing aircraft suddenly had a doubt and told him not to fire, he came back and found from the video that it was Gulteri.”
Air Marshal Patney clarified that “I was neither informed nor aware” about Sharif’s presence at Gulteri. In any case, “hitting Gulteri was against the rules”, said the Air Marshal, who is now director general of the Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS) in New Delhi.
The government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had chosen to restrict operations to India’s side of the LoC, and denied the IAF permission to cross the Line while executing missions.
“The flight commander excitedly called me on the radio and said, ‘I have the target in sight. It is a big military camp with a large number of people. I have it on the CLDS.’ I told him not to fire and to tell me whether he was on this side of the river or the other side.”
The flight commander of the first aircraft had lased on to Gulteri while Sharif and Musharraf were there, and the second aircraft was ready to fire the bomb when it was told them not to fire. The second Jaguar then fired the bomb in Mushkoh Valley on the Indian side of the LoC.