When I broke Kargil for the world

 

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

_______

Had my affectionate editor Mr SD Rohmetra been at his office, I am sure I wouldn't have been able to break the news of Kargil War. Meticulously responsible in such matters like any perfect editor, he would have said: "Fayyaz, I have checked with Army Commander (GOC-in-C Northern Command), Jaitly (Chief Secretary) and Jagat (DGP). It's not correct".

 

For my good luck, Mr Rohmetra was on a tour, perhaps with PM or President, in Europe. Kamal, his elder son in office, called me to know if I would be filing any story. I asked him for 5 column banner lead on page one even when I was still reverifying my facts. I didn't disclose the subject, nor did Kamal press. I also wanted to send it late so that others at office got no time to put their brains on it. I knew it that nobody will trust me in reporting that more than 300 from Pakistan had intruded into Kargil, captured areas deep into the Indian-held territories and a "war" had begun while as India and rest of the world had no inkling of it.

 

It was May 11, 1999, same day when GOC 15 Corps (Lt Gen Krishen Pal) sent his first confirmation of the incursion of over 300 Pakistani soldiers and militants to Command headquarters and Army headquarters. The intrusion had been first reported by some shepherds on May 3. It was first confirmed to their high ups by 121 Infantry Brigade and 3rd Infantry Division on May 7. After some startling inputs, I got the first unwitting confirmation of the three battlions' air dropping into Kargil from then SSP of Kupwara Manmohan Singh who, I am sure, didn't have any estimation of this matter's sensitivity. He had learned from local army officers that all units of paratroopers  (special forces) were being airlifted to Ladakh. I am sure, he had not found it important to share with IGP or DGP Gurbachan Jagat. I called some senior officials of State government to know if there was "any major infiltration in Ladakh". As usual, they invariably said "no, not to my knowledge". I am sure, none of them had an inkling of the war having begun secretly in Kargil. I was keen not to leak it to Government and media with my calls and questions.

 

Those days, we were 6 months old on Internet but there was no threat from the TV channels, now in a great competition. Besides, there was no Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp etc which now outsmart even the best of our competitive reporters. I had an idea that despite warning such a situation as long back as in January 1998, IB, RAW, MI and other Indian intelligence agencies were either ill-informed, or confused or nonplussed or at least secretive and none of them could pass it on to PTI whose Defence correspondents had always broken the news of a war in India.

 

My only competitions in the entire media world were Vikram Jit Singh​, then head of Srinagar bureau of Indian Express and Praveen Swami​ who then reported only for Frontline. I knew Frontline didn't publish daily but I was almost certain that Vikram could be informed. I wouldn't think about Barkha Dutt and others who later dominated the battlefront in reporting the developments. I was happy to find that on May 12, 1999, it was nowhere in the world other than in Daily Excelsior. The banner lead as I had desired. In Press Enclave that day, most of my colleagues cut me dead. Some of them had no knowledge of my scoop, others wanted to pose as if it was just a gossip but senior colleague Altaf Hussain of then BBC advised me that I should report such sensitive things only when the information is "logged" in official records. He told me there was no truth in it as he had spoken to all the concerned about the Excelsior story and none of them------Chief Secretary, DGP, BGS at 15 Corps-----had confirmed it to him. Without arguing, I assured Altaf Sahab that my story was "100% correct". He just smiled. Later, senior colleague Yusuf Jameel​ sahab also bumped into me outside his office. With a usual smile, characteristic of him only, Jameel sahab too gave me his words of wisdom. He too advised that one must take extreme care in verification of such sensitive issues.

 

On the same evening, Rashid Rahi of CNS told me that he had asked almost all the important officers in state government and army but nobody had confirmed it to him. I asked him "Did they contradict it? If they did, please carry a story". He said "They say we neither confirm it nor contradict it". For him it was "contradiction" but for me it was a "confirmation". Rahi immediately called up Vikram Jit and asked him about my story. Not knowing that I was there too, Vikram told Rahi "Yes, it is correct. I have unfortunately missed it". We all knew that Vikram alone had done the most authentic stories on army related matters as, we were told, he was pretty resourceful and one of his close relatives was also a Major General.

 

It was, however, only on May 14 or 15 that PRO Defence at 15 Corps, Maj Purshottam, who later died in a fidayeen attack at his office, called me to inform that the hell had broken loose with my story. He said that Army has ordered an internal inquiry but was relieved that he had not leaked it as nobody other than Corps Commander and BGS knew about the "war". When Brig Surinder Singh (121) and (Maj Gen of 3rd Infantry Div) landed in trouble while facing a tirade from Delhi and casualties of jawans on the war front, I was told they would "kill" me for sure. Purshottam said that everybody from Delhi was asking for EXCELSIOR report and he had faxed them copies of my published story. Next day it dominated TV and print media. Everybody began reproducing my story without credit claiming that it was being reported "first" by his or her TV or newspaper.

 

Friend and colleage Muzamil Jaleel​ stopped his bike at my gate (I had just shifted residence from MLA Hostel to Jawahar Nagar) and introduced me to Indian Express' Dedence Correspondent Gaurav Sawant, now working with TV. They wanted to know if i was interested to accompany them to Kargil for reporting. I told them that we would use PTI as we couldn't leave Valley free. Moths later, Muzamil told me how everybody at a meeting with K Subrahmanyam (head of Kargil Review Committee) had claimed to have broken the Kargil war. It was great of Muzamil, then extremely sincere and straightforward, to confront some colleagues. "I got up and shouted that it had been done by none other than Ahmed Ali Fayyaz in Excelsior of May 12", Muzamil said. Later, he informed me after a foreign tour, that JANES DEFENCE WEEKLY had recorded correctly that the Kargil War news had been first broken by me in Daily Excelsior.

 

The day Subrahmanyam's team landed in Srinagar, Director of Information K.B. Jandial called me. He said that KRC members want to interact with media at SKICC tomorrow. "Is is going to be a press conference?", I asked Mr Jandia. "No, just an informal interaction with journalists. They want you to attend", he said. I immediately made it clear to Mr Jandial that I would attend only if it is a press conference. "If the KRC members want to learn how I broke the story, they should come to me rather than expecting me to visit them", I clarified and refused to attend.

 

Barkha Dutt did perhaps the best of the Kargil coverage, inspite of a few goof ups, but even India's arguably the best TV journalist never reported who had broken the news of the war first.

 

END