US EDITION
COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Mirage 2000 used; intruders' 'supply, escape' routes sealed

Indian Air Force fighter planes, including Mirage 2000, today 'carried out missions' on the positions occupied by Pakistan-supported infiltrators in the Kargil sector.

The Indian Army had blocked most of the supply and escape routes of the intruders, senior officials said today.

The French-made Mirage was introduced as the infiltrators have electronic warfare capabilities and superior weapons. The aircraft is better than the MiGs for night operations.

IAF sources said it made sense to use the Mirage since it was now known where the enemy's well-entrenched positions were along the Line of Control, where they had set up a number of radars. The Mirage would be able to pick up vital information, they said. The French fighters were also capable of jamming air defence batteries.

The air operations this morning in the Kargil, Dras and Batalik sectors were described as 'successful'.

Meanwhile, army artillery continued to pound the entrenched positions of the infiltrators who are mainly Pakistan army regulars and Afghan mercenaries.

India has lost 33 soldiers in the conflict till yesterday. As many 130 were injured and 12 missing.

Major General J J Singh, additional director general of military operations, said around 320 infiltrators had been killed with the ground troops accounting for at least 15 to 20 infiltrators.

Since the terrain where the infiltrators were holed up was very difficult and the IAF was flying strictly on its side of the LoC, the results of the operations would be in phases.

The army said the intruders were now finding it very difficult to hold out at some places where they had been isolated. The army had deployed suitable reserves at various locations for contingency tasks.

In some positions, the infiltrators were still getting supplies from Pakistan and hence they were offering more resistance at these places.

The army has refuted reports from Islamabad quoting a militant group as saying it had control over parts of the Srinagar-Kargil highway. The Indian troops had total control of the highway and were using it regularly.

It also said there was no truth in the reports that the infiltrators were moving east towards Ladakh. All intrusions have been contained and the intruders had been pushed back in all sectors, it said.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report