Chandigarh, July 10
A controversy has arisen over the alleged mishandling and mispossession of highly classified operational documents by some officers of the Leh-based 3 Infantry Division. Despite the matter being brought to the knowledge of top Army officers, no formal investigations have been initiated to determine as to how the said documents were not available at the Division Headquarters.

A letter (No. 29734/SS/Legal) written by Brig Surinder Singh, ex-commander of the Kargil-based 121 Infantry Brigade to Headquarters, Northern Command, as well and the Directorate-General of Military Intelligence, has alleged that the manuscript copy of the division’s War Diary, containing several thousand pages, could not be made available during the court of inquiry against him as the same was not in possession of the division HQ.

The War Diary, the letter alleges, was handed over, ostensibly by the then GOC, 3 Division, Maj Gen V.S. Budhwar, to a lady writer engaged in compiling a book on the Kargil episode, in gross violation of Army regulations. Contents of the letter indicate that the War Diary may not have been in the Division HQ’s possession for at least six months.

War Diary is security classified as “Secret” and contains highly sensitive operational details, including orders of battle, operational orders, movements, troop strength, manner of conducting operations, comments by commanders, success and failures of operations along with their probable reasons and the lessons learnt. As per Army regulations, it is to be in the custody of an officer not below the rank of a full colonel. In division HQ, the Colonel General Staff is responsible for its custody and contents.

Besides the entire details of the Kargil operations, 3 Division’s War Diary would also have contained information pertaining to occupation and vacation of posts along the Line of Control during winter, besides day-to-day surveillance and defensive operations. Needless to say a War Diary is a prized document from the intelligence possession.

When the War Diary was sought during the court of inquiry, a typed copy instead of the hand-written original was produced, which was not accepted by the court. When questioned by the court on the whereabouts of the original copy, the officer concerned stated that it was his personal copy containing about 4,000 pages as it was lying at his residence at Shimla. Army regulations state that war diaries / secret documents are not to be taken away from their designated places.