Arrange the following military operations undertaken by India against Pakistan in correct chronological order : 1. Operation Cactus Lily 2. Operation Riddle 3. Operation Meghdoot 4. Operation Safed Sagar Select the answer using the code given below.

Correct — B, 2–1–3–4. Dating the four operations settles the order without any need to guess. Operation Riddle was the Indian Army's offensive across the Punjab border in September 1965, the opening move of the second India–Pakistan war. Operation Cactus Lily was the 1971 war operation in the eastern theatre, the heli-lift and river crossing over the Meghna that carried Indian troops towards Dacca. Operation Meghdoot began on 13 April 1984, when Indian troops occupied the passes of the Saltoro ridge on the Siachen glacier. Operation Safed Sagar was the Indian Air Force's part in the 1999 Kargil conflict. So the sequence runs 1965, 1971, 1984, 1999 — that is item 2, then 1, then 3, then 4.

• (a)1–2–3–4 — Puts Cactus Lily before Riddle, which reverses 1971 and 1965. The two names invite this because 'Riddle' sounds like an obscure later operation, but it belongs to the 1965 war.
• (c)4–1–2–3 — Opens with Safed Sagar. Kargil in 1999 is the most recent of the four, so it cannot lead a chronological list.
• (d)4–2–1–3 — Also opens with Safed Sagar and then runs the remaining three in order. It reads like a reverse-then-forward sequence and is the trap for a candidate who has dated the other three correctly but placed Kargil first.

Indian military operations are usually remembered by the conflict they belong to rather than by their code names, and four of the best-known ones are anchored to four different decades. The 1965 war produced Riddle in the Punjab sector; the 1971 war produced Cactus Lily in what became Bangladesh; 1984 produced Meghdoot, which is still running as the world's highest-altitude military deployment; and 1999 produced Safed Sagar, the air component of the Kargil operations alongside the Army's Operation Vijay.

Chronology items are best solved by dating one item you are certain of and using it to eliminate. Kargil in 1999 is the anchor almost everyone has, and it is the latest of the four — which kills both options that place Safed Sagar first, leaving only two. Between those, the question is whether Riddle precedes Cactus Lily, and the war they belong to answers it: 1965 before 1971. The examiner has counted on Riddle being the least familiar name in the set, so a candidate who cannot date it may accept an order that puts it late.

• Operation Riddle was the Indian Army's Punjab offensive in the 1965 India–Pakistan war.
• Operation Cactus Lily was the 1971 war operation that crossed the Meghna in the eastern theatre.
• Operation Meghdoot began on 13 April 1984 and secured the Saltoro ridge on the Siachen glacier.
• Operation Safed Sagar was the Indian Air Force's component of the 1999 Kargil conflict; the Army's was Operation Vijay.
• Operation Cactus, without 'Lily', is a different action altogether — the 1988 intervention in the Maldives.

• Confusing Operation Cactus Lily of 1971 with Operation Cactus of 1988 in the Maldives.
• Assuming an unfamiliar code name must belong to a recent conflict.
• Placing Kargil first because it is the operation most often discussed.

Asked as a four-item chronology with code names rather than dates — solvable by anchoring the one operation you can date and eliminating.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Operation Meghdoot, launched in 1984, secured Indian positions on which feature?

  • (a)The Siachen glacier and the Saltoro ridge
  • (b)The Tiger Hill feature in Kargil
  • (c)The Chumbi valley
  • (d)The Rann of Kutch

  Answer(a) The Siachen glacier and the Saltoro ridge — the world's highest-altitude military deployment.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Indian Air Force's operation during the 1999 Kargil conflict was code-named

  • (a)Operation Vijay
  • (b)Operation Safed Sagar
  • (c)Operation Parakram
  • (d)Operation Rakshak

  Answer(b) Operation Safed Sagar — the Army's simultaneous operation was Vijay.