Kargil Vijay Diwas EXCLUSIVE: 'Locals played a key role in recapturing Drass from Pakistan'

Gulam Nabi Zia, a seasoned journalist who broke the story of the Kargil War in 1999, recounts the intense experience in an exclusive interview with Asianet Newsable's Anish Singh. He vividly describes the chaotic situation, where the absence of the internet forced him to rely on phone calls for crucial information.

"The war happened all of a sudden. Nobody had any clue as to what was going to happen next," Zia recalls. "The first information that came out on the news was 6 militants were seen roaming on the mountains of Drass. In the next 24 hours, it turned to 50. On the third day, the war was declared."

Zia poignantly notes that the Indian Army's casualties were largely attributed to the treacherous terrain, rather than enemy gunfire. "We suffered casualties more not because of the bullets of the enemy but because of the stones and ice that were being thrown down from the mountains by the militants," he says.