Srinagar, July 19 -- In high Himalayas, winters conceal more than snow, burying roads, silencing artillery positions and leaving entire mountain ranges inaccessible for months. In early 1999, as spring thawed the frozen ridges around Kargil, Ladakh, Indian Army patrolling units discovered that something far more consequential had emerged than the usual melting snow. Both Pakistan Army regulars and its patronised jihadists had quietly occupied commanding heights across the Line of Control, setting in motion the first direct conflict between two declared nuclear powers. The Kargil War has been remembered for its extraordinary battlefield conditions where soldiers fought at altitudes where oxygen is scarce and every uphill assault demanded i...