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Indian body submits report on Kargil

NEW DELHI: An Indian government-appointed committee on Friday submitted its report on Kargil conflict that brought India and Pakistan to the brink of their fourth war last year.

The 2,000-page report was submitted to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, a government statement said.

However, the statement gave no details on the findings of the committee set up to probe the events and recommend measures to prevent a similar situation in the future.

India launched a major ground and air offensive in the middle of last year to dislodge hundreds of armed men, who New Delhi said were primarily Pakistani army regulars, from peaks and ridges on its side of the ceasefire line in Kashmir.

The 10-week conflict in the rugged Kargil heights left over 500 Indian soldiers dead.

Indian security analysts and opposition groups said the government's failure to check the large scale breach of the military control line with Pakistan was a major security lapse and that heads must roll.

The committee met politicians, military officials, bureaucrats and intelligence agents and toured the occupied region four times, the government statement said.

"The committee undertook its work in a spirit of openness, objectivity and transparency," the statement said.

The country's foremost defence expert K. Subrahmanyam, who headed the committee, was quoted as urging the government to make the report public.-Reuters