The Kargil military conflict of 1999 between India and Pakistan came in the wake of the "bhai-bhai" ("we are brothers") euphoria generated by the bus rideto Lahore by Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the then Prime Minister, and his high-profile meeting withNawaz Sharif, Pakistan's then Prime Minister. In the euphoria, we let ourselves be caught napping by the Pakistanarmy in the heights of Kargil.
The daring attack by a group of suicidal terrorists, believed to be from the Pakistan-based and sponsored Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET), on a Srinagar building complex locating many governmental and non-governmental offices, including that of the Kashmir Tourist Recption Centre, on April6, 2005, has come in the wake of the euphoria generated by the recent spate of so-called confidence-building measures (CBMs) between India and Pakistan and on the eve of the high-profile inauguration of the Srinagar-Muzzafarrabad bus service, which has been projected as the mother of allCBMs.
In 1999, the security forces at least had the excuse, though questionable, that they did not have adequate intelligence of the intentions and preparations of the Pakistanarmy to occupy the heights. Before April 6, 2005, the terrorists of the LET themselves, sporting different names such as Al Nasireen, Al Arifeen, the Save Kashmir Movement and the Farzandan-e-Millat, have been reiterating repeatedly for the last seven days their intention to turn the bus into a coffin for the passengers.
There were three ominous aspects of the repeated terrorist warnings: