Down below in the Valley, bodies of six Indian infantrymen lie on slabs of ice in the morgue. A grim-faced forensic expert emerges to tell the reporters who have scented a story which may be "headline stuff" that the grievous injuries the bodies bear - gouged out eyes, fingers chopped off, arms and legs twisted out-of-shape - were all inflicted after death. The six had been captured at the Khoral salient while patrolling along the Line of Control (LoC). The mother of one of the soldiers lets out a piercing cry and crumples to her knees. Silent tears of grief wet the cheeks of the young wife of the Pakistani rifleman as his body, draped in the bright green of his national flag. reaches a small hamlet in the Pakistan-occupied part of Kashmir. The disputed region is yet once again at war with itself.

The conflict started off badly for India. Taking full advantage of the early melting of the snow in the Kargil sector, several brigades of the 2nd and 4th Mountain Divisions of Pakistan Army took possession of the bunkers and fortifications which a complacent Indian Army had vacated at the height of the Himalayan winter.

The Pakistani game plan was to force India into revising the Line of Control in Pakistan's favour, and to encroach upon National Highway 1 which runs close by the LoC throughout its length. The NH 1 connects Srinagar with the easternmost fringe of Kashmir at Akhshai Chin, which abuts on the Indo-China border. Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif was also keen to indulge in saber-rattling to suitably drown protests against the terrible economic crisis that has forced Pakistan to survive on IMF and World Bank hand outs.

Even as Pakistani troops were busy fortifying bunkers along the salient in the Kargil sector, the Indian Intelligence agency -which had been informed about the incursions by a band of shepherds in late April - never thought it necessary to sound the alarm. It was only when the Pakistani guns started to lob shells on top of the villages this side of the LoC that the Indian Army chose to wake up.

When the Army approached the Kargil sector, they were shocked at the way the Pakistani guns now commanded the heights and were about cut off the Srinagar-Leh highway. Initial attempts to pound the Pakistani positions with 155mm Bofors guns and 105mm mortar shells proved of little use. While the Pakistani artillery had a complete view of the Indian positions below, the Indian Army could only fire a sweeping arc of shells from guns elevated to an angle of up to 70 degrees, hoping to hit targets concealed among the mountain ranges. Indian casualties mounted alarmingly, and by the first week of May, more than 50 men had been killed, including three officers holding the rank of Lieutenant and Major, with more than 150 wounded and missing.

The Indian military next tried to use air power to blast the infiltrators out of the bunkers. However, the somewhat outdated versions of the Mig21 and Mig27 of the Indian Air Force were not designed for low-level strafing operations. A well-directed SAM-7 missile shot down one Mig21, while a Mig27 suffered a flame out and the pilot had to eject to safety.

Unfortunately, the Pakistani army then complicated matters needlessly by shooting the Mig27 pilot dead. The Mig21 pilot was kept in custody for a week, "interrogated" in a rather physical way, paraded on Pakistan television and then handed over to Red Cross representatives.

Stung by the lack of success, certain members of India's National Security Council started to speak irresponsibly about the necessity to "carpet bomb" the Pak installations, and even to intrude into Pakistan right over the LoC to open a "Second Front." As the Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) warned the BJP-led government on June 16th, any further escalation of the war would help Pakistan internationalize the entire Kashmir issue. Such a move would lead to another full-scale war like those of 1965 and 1971.

As the clash went on, the sheer weight of logistics started to exert pressure on the Pakistan Army. Reluctantly, Nawaz Sharif chose to act against the will of the "hawks" in his Army staff, telling Prime Minister Vajpayi that he would send his Foreign Minister, Sartaj Aziz, to Delhi to "talk things over." Sensing victory, Vajpayi went on television to pontificate at length on the "just war" that India would keep waging until not a single intruder remained on Indian soil.

Just on the eve of Aziz's visit, the Indian Government released tapes of conversations allegedly between two high-ranking Pakistani Army High Command officers, deriding Aziz and other "civilian" members of the Pakistan cabinet as "lacking pragmatism." The tapes made clear references to the game plan of the Pakistan Army to press ahead with a low-intensity war till the Kashmir issue gets internationalized. Taking full advantage of resulting furore, Vajpayi and his men started to clamour for "escalated military action" against Pakistan. When Vajpayi did agree to see Aziz but confine the discussion to Kargil only, a panic-struck Nawaz Sharif had already sent Aziz to China. Tang Xiaxuan, the Chinese Foreign Minister, chose to remain noncommittal and proposed a bilateral resolution of the border dispute.

The Delhi talks proved a complete failure, as there was no agreement on any single issue. The two Foreign Ministers even held separate press conferences, each attacking the other for remaining obdurate. Vajpayi then sent his Foreign Minister, Jaswant Singh, to China. Singh got a cool treatment at the hands of the Chinese leadership, depriving Vajpayi of any extra political mileage.

The border conflict goes on. Refugee streams keep increasing on both sides of the communal divide. The need of the hour is to ensure that both diplomatic and military efforts are made to clear out the intruders from Indian soil - and then go in for a bilateral discussion in the spirit of the Shimla and Lahore declarations. Till this is done, Kashmir shall continue to bleed.