Further along, directly north of Dras, the pilots had to deal with LZs of up to 4,500 metres. Buildings seemed to grip hold of mountainsides of icy wastelands. It was one of the cruellest places to fight a war, but also one of the most strategic. In the second formation of fifty aircraft, fifteen were damaged and ten were shot down while they foundered around the mountains, dropping off troops. Most of the pilots had to carry out pinnacle landings, which they described as like approaching a raft at sea in a storm. Some of the hilltops soared straight up 300 metres above the valleys and the pilots had to keep the landing spot below the horizon. If they climbed above, they were too low and became buffeted by winds.
The pilot of a Mi-26, loaded with five tonnes of equipment and twenty men, made that mistake. His aircraft became impossible to control and it smashed into the mountain, mushing up like a squashed paper cup. It rolled down the slope, spewing out men and equipment all the way down until it exploded into a ball of fire. Some of the areas were so unstable that the skids would slip on the ice and get caught somewhere, so the pilots couldn’t take off. They had to get lift by bringing the nose up first, making sure both skids were free. If one got stuck the aircraft would flip over and crash.
On Pakistan territory across the LoC from the town of Minimarg, eight helicopters came into land amid extraordinary scenes of welcome, as if they were a liberating force. Four Mi-25s landed first and the assault squads set up positions around the rest of the LZ, with the villagers backing away from them, but staying. Then the Mi-26 came down and, as soon as the wheels touched the ground, the men on board four Mi-17s jumped out from a hover, secured the area and began unloading equipment. That was when the Pakistanis opened up. A handheld anti-tank missile exploded against the cockpit of the Mi-26. Machine-gun fire, criss-crossing the LZ, cut down a swathe of men, scrambling to get weapons to defend themselves. Rocket-propelled grenades destroyed two helicopters before the assault units were able to lay down fire.
The battle around Minimarg lasted for hours with the bodies of children lying wounded and dying in between the two sides. Every helicopter was wrecked and it wasn’t until the third wave of the Yellow sector assault arrived that India could lay claim to the area.
Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, New Delhi
‘Tell General Hamid Khan and President Tao that I want to speak to them personally and set a time. Chandraji, see the Americans informally and tell them what’s going on. We will handle this bilaterally and regionally. We will not internationalize it. If they want to send special envoys, we will accept them with courtesy, but not as negotiators. If the democratic world wants its values to survive in Asia, they will have to help us anyway.’
Joint Staff Headquarters, Pakistan
‘Prime Minister Dixit is on the hotline, sir,’ said Masood as Hamid Khan, alone in his office, was reading the latest military reports from Kashmir.
‘Have all our aircraft left Kashmir?’ asked Khan, reaching for the telephone.
‘Yes, sir.’
‘How many have we lost?’
‘Eighteen on the ground. Ten F-16s and eight F-7s, all from the attack on Skardu. We lost two F-16s in dogfights. The enemy lost one aircraft, a Mirage 2000.’
‘Cold comfort, Captain. It is my fault for not anticipating their swift response.’
Khan picked up the phone. ‘Prime Minister, General Hamid Khan here.’
‘General, I will not speak unclearly, nor will I be diplomatic,’ said Hari Dixit as soon as Khan came on the line. ‘India holds you responsible for aiding and abetting the Chinese attack on Dharamsala, for murdering the former Indian Chief of Army Staff and the Home Minister, and for planning a terrorist campaign throughout India in which many lives were lost.’
‘Prime Minister, you are talking rubbish,’ interrupted Khan.
‘Shut up, General,’ snapped Dixit. ‘India will continue to form a fifteen-kilometre buffer zone across the LoC. We will attack any military installation, anywhere in Pakistan in order to achieve our objectives. Your attempts to draw Europe, the United States and China into this dispute will fail. You are an unelected military leader with a history of aiding insurgencies. You are not a man of the modern world.’
‘You have twenty-four hours to withdraw your forces from Pakistani territory, Prime Minister,’ said Khan. ‘And twelve to stop all hostilities.’
‘We will stop only when we have achieved the security of our borders.’
‘While you are violating ours. Hari, listen to me. For the sake of God, listen. If you were a military man you would understand what is happening. Pakistan cannot respond to Indian airstrikes by sending up its air force. We have four hundred combat aircraft. You have twelve hundred. We would end up being slaughtered. Pakistan has two deterrents against Indian aggression. Insurgency — or terrorism, as you call it — and the nuclear option. The former has kept us enemies for more than half a century. The latter would destroy us both in half a day. We’re unlucky in that we don’t rule a country like Switzerland, whose citizens are more happy with peace than with war. Our people are warriors. It needs extra-special skills for us to guide it through, Hari. Real imagination.’
‘General, that is a very nice speech. But if you are genuine, why are you picking a fight?’
‘I am lancing a boil, Prime Minister, like NATO lanced a boil in the Balkans by bombing Serbia. They caused many more casualties than if it had been left to fester. But the problem was exposed so that it could be solved.’
‘All right, General. You have one shot. Give me your solution.’
‘You set up your buffer between Tithwal and Marol along the northern sector of the LoC and I will not fight back. You will have secured the most militarized sector. I can’t let you do it along the western flank because it brings you too close to Islamabad. All hostilities cease. Prisoners are sent back. The dead returned. We then make a joint announcement on a referendum for Kashmir — a referendum which will take place. Once details are drawn up, I will do everything in my power to bring back the mujahedin. We have control, as you know, but it’s not total.’
‘The UN resolution stipulates that Pakistani forces must be withdrawn from the disputed territory before any referendum takes place,’ said Dixit, jotting down the points Khan had made.
‘If you don’t want me to internationalize this issue, let’s forget about a defunct UN resolution passed by the very same men who allowed this bloody partition to take place.’
‘I’ll get back to you.’
‘And the invasion continues?’
‘Yes.’
Prime Minister’s Office, South Block, New Delhi
‘Thank you for making the time, President Tao,’ said Dixit. ‘I am sure you agree that if we talk personally we might be able to see a way through the fog.’ Interpreters were on the line. Tao insisted that his Foreign Minister, Jamie Song, join in the conversation, so Prabhu Purie was called in as well.
‘I don’t see any fog,’ said Tao abruptly. ‘Your government has maintained a force of anti-Chinese Tibetan guerrillas who have now invaded Chinese territory. You give sanctuary to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government-in-exile, which is fomenting disturbances leading to deaths and injuries among Chinese citizens. The Dalai Lama has stayed outside China since the failed rebellion of March 1959 by a small number of splittists of the Tibetan upper class. Since then he has gone further and further down the road of dividing the Motherland. He preaches about his aim of turning the Tibetan Plateau into a holy land filled with peace and non-violence, where people can live in harmony and nature — yet he sends terrorists to Tibet to blow up buildings and kill innocent people.’