At Kargil War, IAF Pilot Aimed at Pakistan's Base As Nawaz Shariff and Pervez Musharraf present on the Base

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During the height of the Kargil crisis in 1999, an Indian Air Force fighter pilot mistakenly put a Pakistani military base in its sights and was ready to bomb it, but was pulled back by his superiors, ex-senior officials of the Indian Air Force said today. 

 The June 24, 1999, incident had the potential of triggering an all-out war between the two nuclear armed neighbours as, according to Pakistani media, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and then Pakistan Army Chief Pervez Musharraf were present at the base or were in the vicinity. 

 According to the Indian Air Force officials who were then holding senior positions in the Air Force's Western Air Command, a flight commander was tasked to bomb Point 4388 in Kargil but he instead ended up aiming at a Pakistani military base in Gulteri through a cockpit laser designation system (CLDS). 

 The incident was first reported by The Indian Express newspaper. Under protocol, a Jaguar pilot first "lased over" the area using the CLDS while a second Jaguar was to drop the bomb on the target coming in the pre-designated path identified by the first one.

 "Lasing" refers to locking in on the coordinates of a target. Such a protocol of using two fighter jets was used then as only trainer Jaguars had the CLDS system.

 The Pakistani media had reported on June 25, 1999, that Nawaz Sharif was in Gulteri where in an address to the troops he had called for a dialogue with India to defuse the war-like situation along the Line of Control.

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