After listening to the tone of the statement made by the Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit on the sidelines of an ASSOCHAM organized event here, that the Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Sayeed was a free citizen and could roam around where ever he liked in Pakistan, one wonders whether the relationship between India and Pakistan will ever improve.
Earlier, the India-Pakistan dialogue, which was scheduled to be held on August 25, had to be cancelled as Basit had invited separatist leaders from the Kashmir Valley to come and talk to him in spite of the Government of India conveying and cautioning the envoy not to go ahead with these meetings.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed India's offer to help flood-hit people in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Pakistan made a similar gesture, and it was felt that Prime Ministers Modi and Nawaz Sharif might meet in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session.
High Commissioner Abdul Basit's statement on Hafiz Saeed, however, again puts a question mark on that much expected meeting in New York.
My thoughts go back to 1965, when a war broke out between India and Pakistan in September. I was an officer in the Directorate of Public Relations in the Ministry of Defence then. For over two years, I was busy covering the activities of the army rebuilding defences along the India-China border, raising new mountain divisions and improving the communication network.
The Pakistan President Ayub Khan had decided that he would soon lose the advantage and India would regain its importance in the subcontinent. He had a trial run by attacking our posts in the Rann of Kutch in the summer of 1965. The Indian Army was in the process of throwing out the attacking Pakistani forces, but the then British Prime Minister Harold Wilson intervened and a cease fire was announced. I still remember that day, as on that day, Major Sundarji had been promoted a Lt. Col., and the announcement came when we were having a beer each.
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Pakistan then shifted its action to Jammu and Kashmir. In a repeat of the 1947 action, it infiltrated troops into Jammu and Kashmir, hoping that they will be welcomed by local people, but that did not happen. People alerted the army and in the operations that ensued, India captured the infiltrators in parts of Kashmir like the Haji Pir pass.
Desperate, Ayub Khan decided to attack India in the Chamb Sector on September 1, and called it "Operation Grand Slam". He almost succeeded in his objective of cutting off Jammu and Kashmir from the rest of India. The then Defence Minister, Y. B. Chavan, gave the army and the air force the go ahead to counter the Pakistani attacks.
It was a difficult situation. Pakistan had F 104 Starfighters, Sabres and B-57 bombers. We replied to the Pakistan attack with our Vampires, lost four of them, but it was the first time, that the Indian Air Force was involved in combat and had halted the progress of the Pakistan forces.
The Emergency Committee of the Cabinet met and approved a counter attack by the Indian Army in Punjab. It was a bold decision by then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Y. B. Chavan.
In August of that year, I was in Mumbai where my father was undergoing an operation. When the war broke out, I asked my father whether I could rejoin duty. He agreed. I took a train to rejoin my office in Shillong. At the railway station, I remember people hailing Y. B. Chavan, for his decision to attack Pakistan. Yashwantrao Balwantrao Chavan was the modern-day Chattrapati Shivaji for them.
Next day when the train was passing through Kharagpur, I had got down for a cup of tea at the platform. I saw some aircraft flying to Air Force Station Kalaikunda, and soon after, saw them flying back. It looked that they were being chased. I knew some action had taken place. I decided to get down from the train, deposited my bag at the railway station, hitch-hiked to the air force station and found that a Pakistani aircraft had been shot down. I sought the station commander's permission to visit the site where the a Pakistan Air Force plane had been shot down by us.
Initially, the station commander told me "Major do not bother me. We are fighting a war". I showed my identity card, which was signed by the three services chiefs that I had the right to ask for information. He gave me an escort and a vehicle. I still remember the Pakistani aircraft wreckage, the severed head of the Pakistan Air Force Officer Flt. Lt. Afzal. I took pictures of the air crash with the pilot, and rushed to Calcutta. I got the film developed, released to the papers and sent a picture to Delhi through 'radio-photo'. There was no internet those days.
My boss in Delhi, Mr. G. G. Mirchandani, who later took over the United News of India, called me to Delhi. I boarded the Indian Air Force courier from Barrackpore to Delhi the next day. When I met him, he told me that I should proceed to Amritsar to cover the operations in the "Lahore Sector".
The area from Khem Karan to Pathankot, was commanded by Lt. Gen Jogi Dhillon, and was part of the Western Army Command, which was then headed by Lt. Gen Harbaksh Singh.
When I was travelling to Amritsar from Delhi, I heard Pakistan Radio, broadcasting news assuring the people of Punjab that they will not damage the gurudwaras. It also claimed that the Pakistan Army was advancing all along the border leading with its Patton tanks.
The situation was grim. My office was located at the Sainik Rest house in Amritsar. My team consisted of veteran cameraman Lt. Col. Gulzar Singh Pablay, Films Division cameraman Abnashi Ram and Press Trust of India correspondent T.V. Venkatachalam.
Next day, we decided to move from Amritsar to Dera Baba Nanak, Wagah. I met Lt. Col. Desmond De Hyde, the commanding officer of the Jat Battalion, who told me that he had reached Dograi, on the Ichhogil Canal, on the outskirts of Lahore, on the very first day of the battle, but as supporting artillery and armoured troops had not reached, he had to fall back when the counter attack came. But, Indian troops were still on Pakistan soil.
I told T. V. Venkatachalam to file his report that Pakistan was nowhere near, "Breakfast at Amritsar and Dinner at Red Fort", as announced by President Ayub Khan.
Next day, we drove to Burki, another town on the Ichogil Canal, which was also occupied by our troops. I remember when we were being briefed by the brigade commander; Pakistan aircraft were approaching the place. We were told to occupy the bunkers, but there was little time. To our relief, the planes attacked the bunkers, and we were saved.
The third day, we went to Bhikiwind and met the commander of the 2nd Armoured Brigade, Brigadier Theograj, and his regiment commanders, Lt. Col. A. Vaidya, and Lt. Col. Salim Caleb. They narrated to us that when the Pakistani Pattons attacked in the sector, they were able to shoot a couple of them. They got down the main road into the fields, but we had also cut off the canals and the fields were wet. The Pattons got stuck in the fields and became easy targets for our Centurions and Shermans.
The same story was repeated at Asal Uttar in the Khem Karan Sector, where initially the Pakistani Army had made an advance. Our armoured division was in the Sialkot Sector and had stopped the advance of the Pakistan Army
In the final analysis, India destroyed around 240 Patton Tanks and a graveyard of Pattons was established at Bhikhiwind.
Our stories had made an impact on the rest of the country. The morale of the people was very high, and we were fed with Poories and lassi at every town and village along the road to the border.
Pakistan had told the World Press that it was winning the war, and the Americans, in particular, believed it. I used to take pressmen, including foreign pressmen every day to the border to dispel that impression.
On the 22nd September, I had gone across the Wagah border and came across my old United Nations Emergency Force friend Lt. Col. Gurbir Mansingh. He told me, "Ram do not return to Amritsar this evening as there is bound to be heavy shelling, as this is the last day of the battle. Pakistan will exhaust all of its ammunition."
I rested in an underground shelter.
Next morning, I drove to Dograi, on the bank of the Ichogil Canal. Lahore was across the road. As I was watching the scene, I saw a Junior Commissioned Officer of the Pakistan Army, supervising the loading of dead bodies in a few trucks. Soon after, I saw some well clad people from Amritsar arriving there and waving at the Pakistanis who were stuck at Dograi. Some of them hugged each other.
Looking at me, the Pakistani JCO said: "Major Saheb, ye log hame ladathe hai, woh jappi paathe hai".
Soon, press parties started arriving from Amritsar and Delhi. For nearly a month, I was busy taking pressmen to the tank graveyard at Bhikhiwind, Asal Uttar, Burki and Dograi. Then, I wound up my office and returned to spend the rest of my leave in Bombay, just in time to be present for the birth of my first child.
In Pakistan, stories continue to be circulated that Pakistan had won the 1965 war. India had little to show that it had won the war, as it had returned the conquered areas, including the Haji Pir Pass and areas along the Ichhogil Canal to Pakistan.
We handed over what was won in the battlefield back to the adversary.
It is time India takes steps to stop Pakistan from living in its dream world.
Mr. I. Ramamohan Rao is a former Principal Information Officer of the Government of India. He can be reached on his e-mail: raoramamohan@hotmail.com.
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