Operation Vijay's First Big Victories: How India Won Tololing And Point 5140 In Dras

Last Updated:July 14, 2026, 10:31 IST

Tololing, a rugged spur dominating the approaches to Dras, was among the earliest and most stubborn objectives in Operation Vijay.

Twenty-seven years after India declared victory in Operation Vijay, the story of Kargil is often told through Tiger Hill and iconic soundbites. But the real turning of the tide in Kargil began slightly earlier, on two brutal, wind‑scoured heights above Dras: Tololing and Point 5140. These battles transformed a desperate defensive scramble into a deliberate, confident campaign, and made an eventual Indian victory militarily and politically possible.

Operation Vijay And The Dras Dilemma

By early summer 1999, it was clear that Pakistani regulars from the Northern Light Infantry, aided by irregulars, had quietly occupied a string of winter‑vacated positions on the Indian side of the Line of Control in the Kargil-Dras-Batalik belt. These heights overlooked National Highway 1A, the only all‑weather lifeline connecting the Kashmir Valley to Ladakh and onward to the Siachen Glacier.

Operation Vijay – India’s codename for the campaign to evict the intruders – was launched with two hard constraints: the Army would fight at extreme altitudes in terrain the enemy had already fortified, and political directives ruled out crossing the LoC, even where that might have been tactically useful. In the Dras sector, a cluster of ridges and peaks became central to the war’s outcome: if Tololing and the features along its ridgeline, including Point 5140, remained in Pakistani hands, the highway would stay under observation and intermittent fire, tying India down and eroding its strategic leverage.

Tololing: The First Breakthrough At Dras

Tololing, a rugged spur dominating the approaches to Dras, was among the earliest and most stubborn objectives in Operation Vijay. Pakistani troops had dug in with deep bunkers and sangars, exploiting the ridgeline’s steep gradient and rock cover; attacking troops had to climb in thin air, fully exposed, often within the enemy’s direct line of sight.

Units under 8 Mountain Division, commanded by Major General Mohinder Puri, and 121 Independent Infantry Brigade, led by Brigadier OP Nandrajog, were tasked with recapturing the feature. Early assaults in late May met fierce resistance; companies lost men to machine‑gun bursts and mortars even before they could close in on the bunkers. Among those killed in the initial attempts was Major Rajesh Adhikari of 2 Rajputana Rifles, whose company had edged close to the peak around May 30. Over the next days, repeated efforts to recover his body, while maintaining pressure on the enemy, underscored both the ferocity of the fighting and the Army’s refusal to leave its dead behind.

The final phase of the battle saw coordinated use of heavy artillery to pound Pakistani positions, followed by infantry manoeuvre that tried to avoid predictable routes. A flanking company under Major Vivek Gupta attacked from a less expected direction, but he was killed in action during the climactic assault. By mid‑June, Tololing and its immediate spurs were wrested back after weeks of grinding combat and substantial casualties. Militarily, this not only reduced direct fire on NH1A, it proved Indian infantry could dislodge well‑entrenched defenders from dominating heights, a psychological shift as important as the tactical gain.

Point 5140: Seizing The Crown

With Tololing secured, attention turned to Point 5140, the highest and most heavily defended point on the same ridgeline and a key overwatch for the Dras sector. Standing close to 17,000 feet, it gave Pakistani troops an even better advantage to observe and direct artillery onto the highway and Indian forward positions.

The mission to capture Point 5140 was assigned to 13 Jammu and Kashmir Rifles (13 JAK Rif), commanded by then Lieutenant Colonel Yogesh Kumar Joshi, an officer who would later go on to command the Leh‑based XIV Corps and the Army’s Northern Command. Reconnaissance revealed seven enemy sangars on the feature, and identified the eastern approach as marginally the least suicidal option: still steep and exposed, but offering some scope for surprise.

Joshi’s plan involved a two‑company assault under heavy artillery cover. Bravo Company, led by Captain Sanjeev Singh Jamwal, was to move from the south, while Delta Company, led by Captain Vikram Batra, would attempt the daring eastern climb. Before the operation, each commander chose distinctive radio call‑signs to signal success: Jamwal picked an exuberant “Oh! Yeah, yeah, yeah!", while Batra selected the line that would become etched into popular memory – “Yeh Dil Maange More!"

Shortly after midnight on 20 June 1999, both companies began their ascent under intense shelling that masked movement and shook enemy defences. As artillery lifted, Pakistani positions opened up with sustained machine‑gun fire, forcing the Indian companies to repeatedly ask for continued fire support until they could close in. By around 3:15 am, Bravo Company had clawed its way near the first sangars. Jamwal personally led the assault, killing enemy soldiers in hand‑to‑hand combat and clearing multiple bunkers as his men followed through. By 3:30 am, Bravo had secured its assigned objective, Jamwal radioing his pre‑decided success phrase back to battalion headquarters.

Meanwhile, Batra’s Delta Company was tackling an almost sheer rock face on the eastern side under similarly heavy enemy fire. Using rockets to suppress some bunkers and then closing in, Batra led his men in a surprise assault, engaging intruders in close combat despite suffering injuries himself. He is recorded as having eliminated multiple enemy combatants and silenced machine‑gun positions with grenades, pressing the attack until the crest was firmly in Indian hands. At about 4:35 am, Point 5140 was declared captured; Batra announced the victory in his chosen words, “Yeh Dil Maange More!", instantly transforming a cola tagline into a symbol of youthful courage in war.

At least ten Pakistani soldiers were killed; Indian troops captured a heavy machine‑gun and a cache of weapons, and remarkably, neither company suffered fatal casualties in this high‑risk assault. For their actions, Lt Col Yogesh Joshi, Captain Sanjeev Jamwal, Naik Dev Prakash and Rifleman Mehar Singh were awarded the Vir Chakra, while Captain Vikram Batra was awarded the Param Vir Chakra.

From Tololing And 5140 To Victory

The capture of Tololing and Point 5140 fundamentally changed the geometry of the Kargil conflict. With the Tololing ridgeline largely back in Indian hands, Pakistani positions in nearby features such as Point 5100, Point 4700, Junction Peak and the Three Pimples complex became more vulnerable, both to artillery and to infantry assaults from multiple directions. The Dras sector, which had been under severe pressure, now offered India staging grounds for further operations instead of merely defensive posts.

Operationally, these victories helped secure NH1A to a far greater degree, easing the movement of men, munitions and supplies towards Kargil and other threatened sectors. Psychologically, they signalled to both sides that Pakistani gains were not permanent: they could be reversed through coordinated firepower, planning and sheer physical grit. Inside India, news of the breakthroughs reinforced public confidence in the Army’s ability to deliver under harsh constraints, bolstering the political leadership’s decision to fight a limited war within the LoC.

From late June onwards, subsequent successes at Tiger Hill, Point 4875 and in the Batalik–Mashkoh sectors built on the momentum generated at Tololing and 5140, culminating in Pakistan’s agreement to withdraw. By July 14, 1999, the Indian Army had regained control of most of the strategic heights in the Dras, Kargil and Batalik Sectors. India’s formal declaration of victory came on July 26, 1999 – now marked as Kargil Vijay Diwas.

About the Author

Pragati Ratti

Pragati is a News Editor at news18.com. Having headed the Business and Viral sections, Pragati now ideates, writes and edits long-form features and articles on national and global affairs. She ensures...Read More

News explainers Operation Vijay's First Big Victories: How India Won Tololing And Point 5140 In Dras

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