Operation Vijay's First Big Victories: How India Won Tololing And Point 5140 In Dras

Published 14 July 2026 · india

Operation Vijay's First Big Victories: How India Won Tololing And Point 5140 In Dras Published By, Last Updated: July 14, 2026, 10:31 IST Tololing, a

Operation Vijay's First Big Victories: How India Won Tololing And Point 5140 In Dras Published By, Last Updated: July 14, 2026, 10:31 IST Tololing, a rugged spur dominating the approaches to Dras, was among the earliest and most stubborn objectives in Operation Vijay. Rapid Read The capture of Tololing and Point 5140 fundamentally changed the geometry of the Kargil conflict. (Image: ANI) Twenty-seven years after India declared victory in Operation Vijay, the story of Kargil is often told through Tiger Hill and iconic soundbites. But the real turning of the tide in Kargil began slightly earlier, on two brutal, wind‑scoured heights above Dras: Tololing and Point 5140. These battles transformed a desperate defensive scramble into a deliberate, confident campaign, and made an eventual Indian victory militarily and politically possible. Operation Vijay And The Dras Dilemma By early summer 1999, it was clear that Pakistani regulars from the Northern Light Infantry, aided by irregulars, had quietly occupied a string of winter‑vacated positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control in the Kargil-Dras-Batalik belt. These heights overlooked Highway 1A, the only all‑weather lifeline connecting the Kashmir Valley to Ladakh and onward to the Siachen Glacier. Operation Vijay – India’s codename for the campaign to evict the intruders – was launched with two hard constraints: the Army would fight at extreme altitudes in terrain the enemy had already fortified, and political directives ruled out crossing the LoC, even where that might have been tactically useful. In the Dras sector, a cluster of ridges and peaks became central to the war’s outcome: if Tololing and the features along its ridgeline, including Point 5140, remained in Pakistani hands, the highway would stay under observation and intermittent fire, tying India down and eroding its strategic leverage. Tololing: The First Breakthrough At Dras Tololing, a rugged spur dominating the approaches to Dras, was among the earliest and most stubborn objectives in Operation Vijay. Pakistani troops had dug in with deep bunkers and sangars, exploiting the ridgeline’s steep gradient and rock cover; attacking troops had to climb in thin air, fully exposed, often within the enemy’s direct line of sight. Units under 8 Mountain Division, commanded by Major General Mohinder Puri, and 121 Independent Infantry Brigade, led by Brigadier OP Nandrajog, were tasked with recapturing the feature.

Early assaults in late May met fierce resistance; companies lost men to machine‑gun bursts and mortars even before they could close in on the bunkers. Among those killed in the initial attempts was Major Rajesh Adhikari of 2 Rajputana Rifles, whose company had edged close to the peak around May 30. Over the next days, repeated efforts to recover his body, while maintaining pressure on the enemy, underscored both the ferocity of the fighting and the Army’s refusal to leave its dead behind. Kargil Vijay Diwas 2026#OnThisDay#14July1999Operation VIJAY: India Declares Victory, Pakistan Announces Withdrawal 🇮🇳 By 14 Jul 1999, the Indian Army had regained control of most of the strategic heights in the Dras, Kargil and Batalik Sectors through exceptional courage,… pic.twitter.com/jIY3MDceAS — @firefurycorps_IA (@firefurycorps) July 14, 2026 The final phase of the battle saw coordinated use of heavy artillery to pound Pakistani positions, followed by infantry manoeuvre that tried to avoid predictable routes. A flanking company under Major Vivek Gupta attacked from a less expected direction, but he was killed in action during the climactic assault. By mid‑June, Tololing and its immediate spurs were wrested back after weeks of grinding combat and substantial casualties. Militarily, this not only reduced direct fire on NH1A, it proved Indian infantry could dislodge well‑entrenched defenders from dominating heights, a psychological shift as important as the tactical gain. Point 5140: Seizing The Crown With Tololing secured, attention turned to Point 5140, the highest and most heavily defended point on the same ridgeline and a key overwatch for the Dras sector. Standing close to 17,000 feet, it gave Pakistani troops an even better advantage to observe and direct artillery onto the highway and Indian forward positions. The mission to capture Point 5140 was assigned to 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles (13 JAK Rif), commanded by then Lieutenant Colonel Yogesh Kumar Joshi, an officer who would later go on to command the Leh‑based XIV Corps and the Army’s Northern Command. Reconnaissance revealed seven enemy sangars on the feature, and identified the eastern approach as marginally the least suicidal option: still steep and exposed, but offering some scope for surprise. Joshi’s plan involved a two‑company assault under heavy artillery cover.