22nd anniversary of Kargil Vijay Diwas

On 26^th July, 2021, Kargil Vijay Diwas’s 22^nd Anniversary is being celebrated across the country. The Nation will be paying tributes to the Martyrs on Kargil Vijay Diwas.

Highlights

• This day marks the victory of the Indian armed forces over the Pakistani army in Operation Vijay in the year 1999. The Pakistani army were evicted from high altitude outposts in the Kargil sector of India.
• Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, will visit Kargil War Memorial which is located in Drass, Ladakh to pay homage to the martyrs of the war.
• Rajnath Singh, Defence Minister, today bowed to the sacrifice and indomitable valor shown by the Indian Army.
• The respective heads of the Indian armed forces also paid their tributes at the National War Memorial.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid homage to all those soldiers who had sacrificed their lives in Kargil while protecting our nation.
• President of India and Supreme Commander of the Indian Armed Forces Ram Nath Kovind will be the first President of India to visit the Kargil War Memorial at Drass and take part in the Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations.

Golden Victory of Bangladesh Liberation

This year, the Golden Victory of Bangladesh Liberation is also being celebrated by India. At the War Memorial in Drass, as part of commemoration of the Indian Armed Forces victory in the 1971 war, a Victory Flame will be received around nine in the morning which will then be followed by the Kargil Vijay Diwas celebrations.

About Kargil War

The Kargil War was an armed conflict fought between India and Pakistan from 3^rd May to 26th July 1999 in the Kargil district of Kashmir and along the Line of Control (LoC). The Indian Air Force played a major role in acting jointly with the Indian Army ground troops to flush out the troops of the Pakistan Army from vacated Indian positions along the LoC. Operation Safed Sagar was the codename of this mission. The cause of the war was that Pakistani troops disguised themselves as Kashmiri militants to enter the Indian border and took positions on the Indian side. At initial stages of the war, Pakistan blamed it on the independent Kashmiri insurgents, but documents found from the casualties and later statements by Pakistan showed the involvement of Pakistani paramilitary forces which was led by General Ashraf Rashid. The Indian armed forces gave them a major beating and drove them out of the country.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2021