'Joote khaane bhej diya...': What Pakistan's DGMO told Indian counterpart during Kargil ceasefire talks

First Post

26-07-2025

When the then-Pakistani DGMO came to Attari to meet his Indian counterpart during the Kargil War, he said something so unusual that it reflected Pakistan's defeat in the 1999 conflict. Here's what he said. read more
As India commemorates Kargil Vijay Divas, a retired senior Army officer recalled what happened when the then-Pakistani DGMO arrived in India to meet his Indian counterpart. As Pakistani troops started to struggle in early July 1999, then-PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee called his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, and asked him to send Pakistan's Director General Military Operations (DGMO) for talks with the Indian DGMO.
In the meeting, India aimed to convey to Pakistan the plan for their full pull-back beyond the Line of Control (LoC). For the talks, then-Indian DGMO Lt Gen Nirmal Chander Vij (retd), accompanied by then-deputy DGMO Brig Mohan Bhandari (retd) to meet Pakistani DGMO Lt Gen Tauqir Zia (retd).
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However, what was interesting was the fact that the Pakistani DGMO came all alone for the meeting at Attari. This meeting was significant since this was the first time the two DGMOs came face to face during the Kargil War. While speaking to The Times of India, Bhandari recalled a peculiar interaction with Zia.
'Miyan Saab ne joote khane ke liye akele bhej diya'
Bhandari, who later retired as Lt Gen and now lives in Ranikhet, recalled that he was surprised seeing Lt Gen Zia arriving alone, saying it was 'something highly unusual for DGMO meetings.'
'As per the schedule, we left Delhi at 6.30 am on July 11 for Amritsar, where we reached around 8.15 am. From there, we boarded a chopper to Attari. After reaching the meeting spot, when I went to check on the Pakistani side, I saw Zia standing by himself, smoking, his cap askew,' the retired Indian Lt. General told TOI on Saturday.
'As I met him earlier about 3-4 times during talks on Siachen, I asked him, 'Ye kya hai Tauqir… akele? (How come you are alone?)' He replied, 'Kya karun? Miyan Saab ne joote khane ke liye akele bhej diya'(What could I have done? Miyan Saab sent me alone to take the blows),' he averred, adding that 'Miyan Saab' was a reference to then-Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif.
Bhandari mentioned that the protocol did not allow the Indian DGMO to meet his Pakistani counterpart without any accompanying delegation. 'I asked Zia to call over personnel from the Pak Rangers, stationed at the border, for formality's sake. Three officers joined him. But despite that, we deliberately made them wait for 10 minutes as we all were angry with what they did in Kargil amid the ongoing peace talks between the two sides.'
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The war could have concluded before
Bhandari told TOI that the meeting between the two DGMOs went on for three hours, during which the Indian DGMO gave them 'directions on the Dos and Don'ts while fully retreating beyond LoC.' 'Zia and his three associates just took notes without saying anything, for obvious reasons as they were on the losing side… when our DGMO asked if they had any doubt, Zia just replied, 'No doubt',' Bhandari revealed.
Bhandari recalled that one of the conditions laid by Lt Gen Nirmal Chander Vij, the veteran who served for nearly 40 years in the Army, was that the Pakistanis were not supposed to lay landmines while retreating from Indian territory, but they 'did the exact opposite'.
'Against the accepted conditions, they continued to attack our troops in various skirmishes, and we decided to teach them a lesson by carrying out heavy shelling on their posts across LoC from July 15 to 24. It was only then that they fully pulled back, and the conflict officially ended on July 25. If they had accepted the conditions in the first place without further violence, it would have ended by July 16 or 17,' Bhandari recalled.