Operation Kabaddi : Indian Army's Unexecuted Mission

Hi Peeps!!! This is Boopathy.

              

           On 2001, in the month of June a meeting was held at Chief of Army Staff's office, New Delhi, among Gen. Sundarajan Padmanabhan, then Army Chief; Lt. Gen. Rostum K. Nanavatty, General Officer Commanding - in - Chief, Northern Command and Lt. Gen. Gurbaksh Singh Sihota, Director General of Military operations. In such long meeting, those 3 senior officers discussed about the Increasing Infiltration and the Pathetic Situation of L.O.C. Then they planned for an operation and encoded it as "Operation Kabaddi".

             The Main objective of this operation is to tackle the infiltration of Pakistani Militants and to change the Geography of LOC. Ah! Such a brave plan!!!

             The origin of this offensive operation was from the success of previous year's operations across the LOC to sanitize Infiltration. In the year 2000, several operations were executed between the months of January and August which occurred in Akhnoor, Mendhar, Kotli, Naushera and Pallanwala. The Ambush in Chamb sector was one of the remarkable operation in which 16 Pakistani soldiers were shot down. These successive operations and victory in Kargil war, 1999 acted as catalyst for planning of Operation Kabaddi, which was also a smaller operation, but in a large scale.

             Lt. Gen. Nanavatty was ready with his 3 months preparation which included the execution of deliberate fire assualt, ambushes, raids across LOC. The troops (Company, Battalion and Brigades) were intended for offensive attack to capture the target across LOC and for Counter -Insurgency. Around 25 to 30 Pakistani Posts from Batalik sector to Chamb-Jaurian were targeted by the Indian Army to attack.

             There were no fixed units or formations. The operation is about to take place in several phases and various possibilities. As it was purely Army operation, the Indian Air Force was neither notified nor included into the operation plans. But Gen. Nanavatty suggested to use IAF in order to proceed the mission effectively. 

             The fundamental reason behind this top secret plan was to stop the Pakistan's infiltration and rebellion which never reduced even after several Military gains made by India through the 1990s. And also to show them the consequences of their acts. There was no clarity about the operation's approval from the then Appropriate government led by former PM Vajpayee at New Delhi. When Gen. Padmanabhan was asked about that even after his retirement, he didn't disclose the fact as he said that he can't recall such operation as he grew older. But Gen. Nanavatty proclaimed that they got approval from Army Headquarters.

             On September, 2001, the operation was about to be executed under the command of Gen. Nanavatty. He went through each and every Brigade to discuss every minute plan of the operation with Brigade commanders. Reserved Battalions were also pulled back into Kashmir and trained them for this mission. Even though the planners aware that the operation would lead to arise of several questions from Pakistan, they were also prepared to respond. 

           The chief architect of this operation, Northern commander, Gen. Nanavatty was confident that there would be no heading back from captured posts unless an order from from Central Government. Because holding the captured areas would improve Indian Army's Defensive posture and also constrain the Pakistani infiltration.

             In the month of September, Gen. Sihota confirmed the status with Gen. Nanavatty. All men were set to carry out the operation. The mission was about to start with "No start and End dates". All were waiting for the Order from the Chief .

              Alas! the order was never passed. The order to proceed the mission was never given due to the terror attacks on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001.

This 9/11 incident halted the Operation Kabaddi. Because this would make the people around the World to consider Operation kabaddi as "taking advantage on Tragedy". Even then, the Indian Army waited to accomplish the Mission. But on December, 2001, the Second Major Military Standoff "Operation Parakram" was initiated by Indian Army,  responding to the Pakistan's terrorist attack on Indian parliament on 13th December, 2001.

             Operation Kabaddi was clearly portrayed in the book called "Line On Fire" which was written by Happymon Jacob, who was a Professor in Jawaharlal Nehru University. 

Thank you !!!

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JAI HIND...!!!