In the wee hours of almost every night, we used to be woken up by the thuds of Pakistani shells bursting on the home side of the LoC far away from where we lived. Those were pre-war skirmishes. And then it happened. War was declared. Our three field companies of the Engineer Regiment were already on the war front with the brigades to which they were attached. The Division HQ swung into action. They moved out in the night leaving only a rear party behind to hold the fort.
They dug trenches and built bunkers. Soon, a call came, asking an engineer representative to join the team on the field. Being a junior officer, I was chosen. I was shown the spot allotted for me and was advised to pitch my tent there. A tree covered us from the view of the enemy fighter jets. Pakistani warplanes used to zoom through the sky to drop bombs, and our HQ set off a siren to warn us. We were to jump into the trenches and stay there until ‘all clear’ was heard.
Our location was well camouflaged. When the siren goes on, all lights were switched off and all movements avoided. Life on the war field was very exciting, and dangerous. Threat to life came either from the air or from infiltrators. They wore civil dresses and could not be differentiated from Indians as our ethnic origins are the same.
The only way to identify them was by asking the password which was valid only for the day. Every stranger was asked to stop, raise his hands and reveal the password. I used to leave the HQ in the morning to visit the field companies fighting with the infantry brigades, thus being a link between them and the HQ. The path was fraught with danger as there could be snipers hiding in the bushes. There were instances of such sniper fire killing our soldiers. Our Division did well.
We intruded two miles into Pakistani territory in the Sialkot sector. I could see Sialkot 2 km away. We were winning and the morale of the troops was high. When we were ready to take over Sialkot, to our surprise, the decision came from the top unilaterally declaring ceasefire. We were already in Pakistan territory then. And an adventurous encounter came to an end.