Point 5353 (also called Point 17561, and Marpo La Peak) is a mountain peak on the Line of Control dividing the Indian- and Pakistani-administered portions of Kashmir in the vicinity of Dras in the Kargil district.: Description of the 1949 Cease-Fire Line: "... thence to MARPO LA (to be shared by both sides), thence through Point 17561 [Point 5353], thence through Point 17352 [Point 5289], thence through Point 18400 [Point 5608], thence through Point 16760, thence to (inclusive to India) DALUNANG.": "In fact the Line of Control runs from Marpo La Pass which is not inclusive to either side, along the ridge line to Point 5353."Point 5353 controversy rears its head again, The Tribune, 28 August 2002: A single page denial issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said, "as far as Point 5353 is concerned, it is a Point on the Line of Control (LoC) as delineated after Simla Agreement. This has been authenticated on a map by Lt. Gen P.S. Bhagat of India and Lt. Gen Abdul Hamid Khan of Pakistan on a map on December 11, 1972". It is the highest peak along the Marpo La ridge and dominates the entire area on both the sides of the Line of Control.: Point 5353 dominates the Eastern Shoulder of the Pass, and since it is the highest point in that area it could be called the dominating feature. It dominates, by observation and fire, the complete area on both side of the Line of Control.Point 5353 controversy rears its head again, The Tribune, 28 August 2002: The denial prompted by the media reports ... conveniently overlooked the factor that the most dominating feature on the Indo-Pak border in the Kargil region – Point 5353 – is under the Pakistani army control.Gen Ashok K. Mehta, Point 5353 still in Pakistan's possession , The Tribune (Chandigarh), 13 June 2004: Point 5353 is the summit of pinnacles on the watershed in the Dras sector. ... Its colossal domination of the Dras Bowl and Sandow valley was achieved by the Pakistan Army, cleverly using the two south-facing ridge lines emanating from it and paralysing the movement in Dras.: The entire Drass Sector including Mushkoh is dominated by a series of heights along the Marpola Ridge which emanates from Faranshat village in POK. Point 5353, a prominent height on this ridge overlooks both the Mushkoh-Drass Valleys and NH 1D, and dominates the approach to POK.: Pt 5353 is the highest peak in this area (16500 feet). It is the most dominating feature in Dras Valley, and is on a confluence of number of spurs and overlooks the long stretch of Srinagar-Leh highway.
The peak became a subject of controversy after the Kargil War. Soon after the war had ended The Hindu correspondent Praveen Swami and an Indian opposition party leader, Ram Kumar Anand claimed that the peak was inside the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC) and it was captured by the Pakistan Army during the Kargil War. They also claimed that the Indian troops had unsuccessfully tried to recapture Point 5353 on 18 May 1999. The report also added that Indian troops captured Point 5310 on the Pakistani side of LoC in retaliation in April 2000.
The Pakistani military has held possession of Point 5353 from the time of the war, whereas the Indian Army has held the peaks in its surrounding on either side with a view to counteract any Pakistani activity on 5353.
Geography
The Marpo La pass is one of very few passes in the high Himalayas of Ladakh that allows north–south communication. The 1949 Cease-Fire Line between India and Pakistan as well as the 1972 Line of Control pass through the Marpo La pass. The ridge adjoining the pass to the east, which is also referred to as the 'Marpo La ridge', runs in a northwest-southeast axis and contains a number of tall peaks. The Point 5353, so named because of its height in metres, is the tallest peak on the Marpo La ridge. Its older name is Point 17561, representing its height in feet.
The Line of Control in this area is flanked by the Shingo River valley of Pakistani-administered Kashmir in the north and the Dras River valley of Indian-administered Kashmir in the south. Both these valleys represent major lines of east–west communication in the respective regions of Kashmir. The Shingo and Dras rivers join together further east near Kakshar. To the south of the Line of Control is India's Kargil district and to the north is Pakistan's Skardu district. A dominating feature in the area is Point 5608, which lies about 15 km to the east of Point 5353 in the Kaksar sector. It overlooks the Shingo Valley in Pakistan. Indian troops took control of this feature in the wake of Operation Parakram.From war hero to outcast, The Statesman, 21 March 2016
According to the Indian Army sources, the Point 5353 itself is on the Line of Control. However, after the end of the Kargil War, a controversy erupted in India as to which side of the Line of Control the peak lay.
Point 5070, 3 km west of Point 5353 is the closest peak to the Marpo La pass.Atul Aneja, India, Pak. reposition forces in Dras, The Hindu, 28 August 2000.B. L. Kak, Pakistan Troops Pose Threat To Dras-Kargil Highway, Daily Excelsior, 29 August 2000. The second tallest peak on the Marpo La ridge, Point 5240, is 1.2 km southeast of the Point 5353. Both points 5070 and 5240 are currently held by India, and are situated on the LoC.
The Sando nullah (stream) starts just below the Marpo La pass and flows southeast, joining the Drass River. A track running alongside the Sando Nullah is the key communication link between the town of Dras and the Marpo La pass.
Strategic significance, and the surrounding area
The Marpo La ridge originates from the Pakistani side of the Line of Control and consists of a succession of mountain peaks that overlook the Mashkoh and Dras valleys in the Indian-administered Kashmir. It dominates the entire Dras sector.: "The entire Dras sector, including Mashkoh, is dominated by series of heights along Marpola ridge which emanates from POK." Point 5353 is a prominent peak on this ridge, overlooking the strategic National Highway 1 of India linking Srinagar to Leh. It is at an aeral distance of 12 km from Dras, which lies on the National Highway 1.
In 1999, Pakistani forces occupied the high peaks that the Indian army had vacated with the onset of the winter in the region and directed artillery fire at the highway, which led to Indian retaliation and the small-scale conflict known as the Kargil War. The Indian Army fought to regain control of peaks it had lost to the intruders on its side of the LoC. These included Tiger Hill and Tololing peaks and ridgelines, which posed a more direct threat to the highway. Point 5353 was not cleared during the war. Its status, along with that of the nearby peaks—Points 5165 and 5240—was settled during the negotiations after the end of hostilities. The two sides had then agreed to leave Point 5353 as well Points 5165 and 5240, the heights which surround it on either side on the Marpola ridge, unoccupied, based on the consensus that had been reached during the negotiations. However, the consensus did not survive the immediate post-Kargil period. The Indians reoccupied Point 5240, besides Point 5165, in August 1999, while the Pakistanis, in turn, took control of Point 5353.Praveen Swami, Pakistan still occupies key Drass point, The Hindu Business Line, 11 August 2000. "When Pakistani troops detected the Indian presence on 5240, they promptly launched a counter assault on 5353. Seven days later, in early November, the Grenadiers unit on 5240 watched Pakistan take up positions on the more important peak."
For Pakistan, the strategic significance and their purpose for holding onto this feature lie in the fact that it provides them a view of the strategically important Marpo La pass, which India dominates. According to one assessment, without Point 5353, they had been finding it difficult to do so. Even before the Kargil war, the Pakistani military planners had been becoming increasingly concerned about their vulnerabilities in this region, having lost posts on the LoC at Marpo La to India before in the pre-Kargil period.Feroz Hassan Khan, Peter R. Lavoy and Christopher Clary, "Pakistan's motivations and calculations for the Kargil conflict" in To the south of the feature on the Pakistani side, however, lies a strongly glaciated tract, rendering the terrain inhospitable to the Pakistani army, which as a result has been pushed 5–6 km at the back, along the Shingo river, for building defences. This, as a result, has greatly degraded the tactical usefulness of this feature.
India, in turns, controls Point 5070, a strategically important peak along the Marpo La pass. It lies on the Pakistani side of the LoC, about 10 km west of Point 5353. The rest of the area in this region is glaciated, including what is called the Pariyon Ka Talab (literally meaning, "the pond of fairies"). Whereas the Indian supplies are moved along a path hugging the Sando nullah, Pakistani supplies are moved through the Palawar-Bunyal road, which runs along the Shingo river. Their supplies are first off-loaded in nearby villages such as Gultari and Farnshat, then sent to frontline positions including Point 5353.
The Indian deployment on the 18,400 feet (5608 metres) mountain feature in the Kaksar sector along the LoC assumes significance in this context, for this feature overlooks the Shingo river valley in Pakistan. Sitting at this height, the Indian troops can subject the Palawar-Bunyal road to artillery fire at their convenience. Indian troops are also deployed on the adjacent Point 5240, which is another important feature that allows observation of the area. Both Points 5070 and 5240 also overlook the Pakistani supply route for Point 5353.
Point 5353, in turn, dominates the eastern shoulder of the Marpo La pass and the Sando nullah approach to the pass. Since it is the tallest peak in the immediate area, it is said to be a "dominating feature". For the Pakistani army, the access to this peak has not led to a significant increase in their capacity to observe the Indian highway. Several of its posts, on its side of the LoC, such as Point 5108, Twin Bumps and Taimur offer it a comparatively better view of the highway. According to a senior Indian army artillery officer who had served in the area, India enjoys the advantage in this region, for it can subject greater stretches of Palawar-Bunyal Road under artillery fire. According to him, a number of Indian posts offer the Indian army an "unrivalled visibility" of the road.
The Indian Army says that the Pakistani occupation of Point 5353 does not pose a great threat to the National Highway or to its supply lines, and that the peak is not comparable in strategic importance to Tololing and Tiger Hill. Former Lt. Col. Kuldip Singh Ludra states, Point 5353 "dominates, by observation and fire, the complete area on both side of the Line of Control."Sandeep Dikshit, Army fails to clear controversy over Point 5353, The Hindu, 28 August 2002: "The importance of this feature arises from the fact that it overlooks Marpo La, a key pass on the LoC which India dominates, and also supplements the Pakistani observation of National Highway 1A, lifeline of Siachen and Leh."
In 2000, Praveen Swami claimed in his reports that from Point 5353, the Pakistani army could direct artillery fire up to a 20 km stretch of the Indian highway. In the wake of artillery duels during Operation Parakram, however, he noted that the Pakistani soldiers at Point 5353 were unable to do so, whereas the Indians were able to blow up the Pakistani positions on Point 5353 using Bofors howitzers from the surrounding heights of Point 5165, Point 5240 and Point 5100. Indian army officers state, citing what they call an "intervisibility exercise on a detailed contour map" that the Pakistani soldiers from a point 12 km away could observe only about 0.5 to 1 km of the road.
Line of Control