It was a chilly December 40 years ago in Punjab. The temperature had dipped below zero; inundation canals passing through fields thick with maturing cotton were beginning to freeze over. On the night of December 3, Pakistan launched the first of many pre-emptive strikes on 11 cities along the western frontier.
Indian soldiers waiting in their camouflaged tanks in the fields of the Fazilka sector could hear Pakistan Air Force bombers pounding the Halwara airbase.
The tanks started advancing in the dark without lights as the radio broke the news that the third Indo-Pak war had begun.
For Lt Gen J P Singh, Deputy Chief of Army Staff (Planning and Systems), as a 19-and-half-year-old Second Lieutenant, it was a night that will remain etched in his memory forever. The senior commander of the Indian Army is last of the lot who saw action in the only truly triumphant war that India has ever fought.
Along with Gen Singh, all the Indian officers who were part of the great Indian victory will retire, and along with them will go the military acumen a soldier gets only when he has been through a real battle. Today, the Indian Army has less than 10 officers who saw action in the war of 1971.
When Second Lieutenant JP Singh, as part of the biggest armoured formation of the Indian Army on the western frontier, was busy evading enemy aircraft, Second Lieutenant V S Tonk was gearing up to draw the first blood against the enemy in the eastern sector. Tonk, now a Lieutenant General and Deputy Chief of Army Staff, was commissioned in the army one-and-a half months before schedule as the clouds of war began looming large over the subcontinent.
Little aware of the impending war and bursting with confidence, the young officer was routed to the Silchar sector in Assam to the 6 Rajput Regiment, which was given the larger task of surrounding Sylhet in then East Pakistan and choking enemy forces.
On the night of December 4, the battle of Gazipur began between advancing Indian troops and the defending 22 Baluch Regiment of the Pakistan Army in the Gazipur tea estate. The rows of tea plantation were like alleys and the Indian soldiers came under heavy automatic fire from all sides. “It was pitch dark.
We suffered a few casualties,” says Tonk. After a pause, he adds, “It was the first time I saw blood. I was shaken a bit. But then a lieutenant was killed and I was ordered to take his place.” Gen. Tonk’s matter-of- fact tone is that of a veteran soldier who has learnt his most valuable lessons while under fire.
The attack failed, and the task was given to the 4/5 Gorkha Rifles, which finally captured the Gazipur tea estate inflicting heavy damage on enemy forces.
With barely three weeks into the Indian Army, Tonk was made Platoon Commander, with 36 men under his command. With two packets of lunch as their ration, Tonk and his men kept moving, covering approximately 95 km in 14 days that saw intermittent battles. “I carried out all kinds of actions—ambushes, patrols and so on—and got to fire all kinds of weapons. Wherever we went in Bangladesh, we were welcomed with the cries of ‘Joy Bangla’,” says Gen.
Tonk.
Meanwhile the western sector, where Pakistan had amassed huge forces, had also started simmering. Second Lieutenant J P Singh was given three tanks and three platoons of infantrymen and was asked to guard a bridge in the Fazilka sector of Punjab. “We were tasked to guard the bridge under reserve—that means the bridge was not to be demolished without a fight. It was a night movement with lights off.
“After 15 minutes of briefing and five months of experience, I was asked to go and do the task. We reached there, oriented and deployed ourselves.
With basic communication equipment during those times you had to work more on instincts, and take your own initiatives,” says Gen. Singh.
Even though the border villagers in Punjab were asked to evacuate their houses, a few old timers had stayed behind to tend their crops. The PAF airstrikes, however, saw yet another exodus from the area.
The Fazilka sector saw some more offensive actions from across the border; India lost some territory. “From our position,” Singh recalls, “we saw our own aircraft going and bombing the area captured by the enemy on our side.
There were some air battles also. Artillery was also fired from our side.
Pakistan’s artillery range was lesser than ours so their shells were falling short of ours.” He adds with a wink: “This knack of judging the range of artillery is acquired only when you have heard shells flying all over your head.” Another of Singh’s coursemates, 21-year-old Second Lieutenant Arun Khetarpal, was engaged in the Battle of Basantar—one of the greatest tank battles in the annals of the Indian Army’s history. The Basantar river runs from the Shivalik hills of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and flows down into Pakistan. The battle took place in Shakargarh sector, between Pathankot and Jammu. The territory was strategically important to India.
Lt Khetarpal, of Poona Horse, earned a Param Vir Chakra in the battlefield as he fought to the finish against superior enemy numbers. In Kaluchak sector of Jammu and Kashmir, another young officer, Second Lieutenant Mukesh Sabharwal, was posted to the 9 Rajput Regiment in June 1971. Aptly termed “bachchu” (kid) of the unit, Sabharwal was involved in area domination operations. “We were along the border. We were never stationary.
We had to dominate the area, whether in terms of reconnaissance, raids and recapture and the enemy was also doing the same,” Lieutenant General Sabharwal, now the Adjutant General of the Indian Army, says.
His patrolling party came face-to-face with an enemy patrol. He says: “We had close combat with the Pakistani patrol and we captured one of the soldiers of their 29 Punjab Regiment, Nisar Ahmed. He was pretty aggressive as I recall.
His statement in chaste Punjabi was: ‘Had my weapon not got jammed, I would not have been caught’.” Nisar Ahmed was the only Prisoner of War taken by the second lieutenant’s division.
As Sabharwal was patrolling the area under his command, Tonk in the eastern sector was preparing for his last battle, which took place a few kilometres short of Sylhet. One brigade, the 4/5 Gorkha, was airlifted to Sylhet on December 7.
The Gorkhas established a firm base in a grove near Mirapara in the Sylhet district. It was then discovered that the Pakistanis had built up considerable strength in the area and had taken up positions all around. From the day they were airlifted till December 15, the Gorkhas had come under heavy artillery and mortar fire.
Indian casualties in Sylhet were 12 dead and 40 wounded. The airlifted brigade was under pressure. The Pakistani force was carrying out effective demolition of roads and bridges, slowing the Indian Army’s advance. With time at a premium, Tonk was asked to capture the rail and road bridges in Kola Bil by the morning of December 14. “The rail and road line were going through marshy area. I still remember it was a foggy morning and we were able to surprise the Pakistanis.
We found them preparing puris, and tea was brewing in the teapots,” recalls Tonk. “I was just a second lieutenant and was not aware of the whole battle plans. I was not aware that another unit of ours was surrounding the area from the other side. Immediately after the attack I saw Pakistanis on the other side, I thought they were regrouping and immediately I rushed in. We got engaged in close combat but then the reinforcements came,” says Tonk. He adds: “We should not have done this, but these things do happen in battle.” In the end, the area of Kola Bil was captured by 11 am.
The Pakistanis had left behind 15 dead bodies and some weapons. Behind these Pakistani positions, the Indian Army’s 9 Guards then established a block on the road leading to Sylhet and thus trapped the withdrawing Pakistani troops.
One vehicle carrying an officer and 8 wounded soldiers was also captured.
With barely half an hour of sleep every day, for Tonk, Singh and Sabharwal; and everybody in the war, their transistor radios were the only connection with the outer world.
By now a ceasefire was looming closer. By December 15, it was clear that the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would declare a ceasefire on the morning of December 16. A sense of victory and jubilation ran through the ranks and files of the Indian Army. But Singh had to complete an unfinished task. “Based on our 1965 experience, we expected Pakistan to play some mischief and grab a chunk of the Indian territory in the last minute confusion. We were expecting a last minute surge from across the border in Sriganganagar in Rajasthan. We were asked to move those 116 km overnight. “The temperature was zero.
We guessed so as there was a thin sheet of water on the canal we were moving along. We kept going to reach our destination on time,” says Gen Singh, the excitement of remembering that night quickening his breath. Many times the tanks started sinking in sand. “There was total radio silence, we could not ask for help. The tanks were supposed to extricate themselves and keep joining the convoy as and when they could,” Singh remembers. He reached Sriganganagar with daylight; for the next one month he held his position in a very high state of readiness.
Following the declaration of ceasefire on the morning of December 16, Tonk’s unit, 6 Rajput, was asked to accept the surrender of troops of Pakistan’s 22 Baluch. “The Baluchs took it quite well. They had already accepted their defeat,” Singh remembers. Later, the surrendered Pakistani unit hosted 6 Rajput at dinner. “We discussed the battles. This very battalion had been stopping our advance,” Tonk remembers clearly.
After the war, these young “war veterans” went for their mandatory Young Officers’ Course. “Most of our instructors had never seen a war. But all of us had medals and ribbons,” says Singh.