NEW DELHI: The Indian troops are now in commanding position on the highest peaks both in Dras and Batalik sub-sectors to observe and eliminate the enemy located on lower heights on the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC).

The capture of two key positions of Jubar and Point 4268 in the Batalik sector on Tuesday night gave the same advantage that came in Dras with the capture of Tiger Hill top on Sunday, Army spokesman Col. Bikram Singh disclosed at the daily Media Update briefing. These would be the "launching pads" for future assaults, he said while pointing out that the fierce fighting was on north of Jubar and mopping up operations have also begun in the positions captured.

It was, however, for the third day that the troops struggled to evict the enemy from a spur rolling down from the Tiger Hill top even as the mop-up teams recovered bodies of one Pakistan Army officer and 10 soldiers from the seized area.

A battalion of the Bihar regiment was involved in capture of both Jubar and Point 4268. It may be recalled that part of Point 4268 was re-captured by the Indian troops on May 29 when commanding officer, Major M Sarvanan had made the supreme sacrifice, and as such it came as a relief when the entire mountain height was finally taken over by the Indian troops.

Col. Bikram Singh also reported identification of two Pakistan Army officers whose bodies were found in other positions captured in Batalik sector. They were: Major Asim Ahmed, company commander of 6 Northern Light Infantry and Capt Syed Asher Mehboob of 11 Northern Light Infantry Battalion.

Asked if the Military had any proofs to refute Pakistan's claim that none of those being killed in Kargil sector were its soldiers, Col. Bikram Singh said: "We have truck-load of documents and we will produce them in Delhi in days to come to substantiate."

PAK DISOWNS: Since after accepting bodies of three Pakistani soldiers killed in the operation and handed over by the Indian Army as per the Geneva convention, the Pakistan Army has started disowning more bodies sought to be returned claiming that the dead were not their soldiers, Col. Bikram Singh disclosed.

He said the Indian Army was left with no choice except to giving them "decent burial" as per the Muslim rites. He said many bodies would be disposed of on the mountains itself because of two reasons: First, Pakistan was not accepting them; Second, there were logistic difficulties in bringing them down. Momentum of the operations would be affected if the troops' attention is diverted by trying to bring down the bodies.

AIR ATTACKS: Meanwhile, the Indian Air Force fighter jets were in action right from the early hours of the day, specially flying a number of missions over Mashkoh valley. The most important, however, was a concentrated and extremely successful attack on a logistics camp, west of Tiger Hill. This target was specially identified as a tactically extremely important one and accordingly addressed with a corresponding larger weight of attack.

Describing the operation, IAF Group Captain Ganesh said the formation led by a young Flight Lieutenant scored a direct hit, amid the surface-to-missile attacks mounted by the enemy. "In describing the state of this target after the attack, the word ibliterated does come to mind," Ganesh said.

SPECIAL CITATIONS: The Chief of the Army Staff on Wednesday conferred special instant awards of "Unit Citation" on two more battalions for their meritorious and gallant performance in the Kargil operation.

The battalions getting the honour are: 13^th battalion of the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles which showed sterling performance in the battles of Hump (Tololing Ridge) on June 15 night, Point 5140 on June 19 night and Point 4875 on July 4 night and 18^th battalion of Garhwal Rifles which were instrumental in capture of Point 4700 and 5140. END.