Left alone, we will smash Pak war machine: Army officer
NEW DELHI, DEC 9. “If we are not asked to stop midway we will smash the entire Pakistani war machine.” a high ranking army officer said. “We would have done it in 1965 itself, but, then, the cease fire came.”
He was talking to a group of newsmen about eight km behind the Chhamb border in Kashmir, scene of one of the fiercest tank and artillery battles.
His words sum up the mood of the valiant soldiers who are engaged in a round the-clock effort to resist the massive thrust by Pakistanis using a large number of men, artillery, tanks and aircraft, wirtes a UNI Special Correspondent just back from a visit to Chhamb and Pathankot.
Equally confident are the Air Force men who keep a 24-hour vigil over India’s air space against sneaking Pakistani war-planes.
“They wasted their bombs over vacant fields and villages. They cannot do a damn thing to us this time.” an Air Force officer remarked proudly pointing to an aircraft taking off on a patrol mission.
“Our aircraft continue to rule the sky just as they did in 1965,” the officer told correspondents who witnessed the December 4 dog fights in which several Pakistani Sabers and Mirages were downed.
The correspondents saw several attempts by Pakistani aircraft to approach the airfield and bomb this important border air force base. They were either downed or chased away by our fighters and by Ack-Ack guns before they could bomb their target.
Missing the target, the seared Pakistani pilots dropped bombs in villages and civilian areas. Many of the bombs did not explode. Those that did could not inflict much damage except for one or two deaths or slight damage to buildings.
On the night of December 4 the sky reverberated constantly with the zoom of intruding Pakistani planes and of our fighters chasing them, the intermittent boom of Ack-Ack guns opening fire at enemy planes and the thud of bombs dropped indiscriminately by fleeing Pakistani pilots.
One bomb fell just a few metres from the army mess building where the correspondents spent the night, shaking the building violently. While the black-out plunged the entire town in darkness, the sky was illuminated much as fireworks do on festival days but with the big difference that it was not for fun.
The calm and cool response of the people of Pathankot and nearby areas came as a pleasant surprise to the newsmen. There was no sign of scare nor panic on their faces.
“We have clearly established our air superiority,” the high ranking Air Force officer said. “They now think twice before they intrude into our air space our planes are playing havoc with them.”
How could we account for the loss of our planes, he was asked. He replied: “We lost planes while achieving our target of bombarding Pakistani fields. They lost theirs without achieving anything.”
He pointed out that for several hours the military airfields near Karachi had been put out of commission. This showed our planes reached their targets.
On December 6, the correspondents proceeded to the Chamb Jaurian sector in a camouflaged military vehicle.
As the vehicle approached Jaurian the deafening sound of shells bursting in our territory and of Indian field guns incessantly opening up was heard Both Indian planes and Pakistani planes zoomed in the air.
It was during that ride, marked by occasional scurrying for cover under green trees and trenches to evade enemy aircraft on strafing mission that the newsmen heard on the radio cheering news of recognition of Bangladesh. The jawans and the civilians were equally jubilant.
JAURIAN CALM
Jaurian where President Ayub Khan reportedly addressed advancing Pakistani soldiers in the 1965 war, looked calm and quiet this time. The correspondents were told that the prevailing calm showed the preparedness and strength of the Indian troops in the area who had been ready for a strong thrust by Pakistan to capture the strategic Akhnoor bridge that connects the Kashmir Valley with Jammu and the rest of the country.
The correspondents drove through the active area as shells from Pakistani guns fell and exploded intermittently. One could trust only one’s luck to escape being hit by shells or splinters.
A field military hospital in the front area showed the pangs of war. Jawans and officers of India and Pakistan, who only a few hours ago fought each other bitterly, lay side by side, bleeding or wounded. Three wounded Pakistanis, one of them a Lieutenant Colonel and another a Major of the “Azad Kashmir” Regiment acknowledged that they were getting generous treatment from army physicians. It could not be otherwise, said the officer in charge of the hospital, for “we strictly stick to the Geneva Convention that prisoners of war should never be ill-treated.”
Two Pakistani Sabres were downed in the compound of the field hospital only a few hours earlier. The correspondents were shown the wreckage and some wanted pieces of the wreckage as souvenirs. The hospital was not spared by strafing Pakistani aircraft. Minor damages to the walls bore testimony to this.
From the field hospital the correspondents were then taken to the front by a Brigadier and the boom of Pakistani and Indian guns once again pierced the ears. Emerging from a bunker the General in Charge of the operations in the area pointed towards Chhamb, just four or five km away and narrated how his jawans stoutly beat back a heavy attack launched by Pakistan unexpectedly at 8.50 p.m. on December 3. The Pakistanis used tanks, 80-pounder guns, and other equipment in the most massive attack yet in the sector. The battle was fought on December 4 too and India retained Chhamb town firmly in its hands. The correspondents could see the town from a distance and the incessant Pakistani fire in the area.
The battlefield was littered with bodies and carcassess and vultures hovered over them, some mercilessly biting and devouring.
The correspondents also visited a village where the field guns of the Indian artillery kept on firing shells into the Pakistani territory. Our young but expert gunners had fired nearly 4,000 rounds the previous day to silence Pakistani guns across the border, the correspondents were told.
· The officers were so glad to meet the Press in civilian dress in the active field. They showed their happiness by inviting the correspondents to a bunker where tea and snacks were instantly served to them. A Major who accompanied the correspondents said that was how the army functioned. Every minute counted and they had to be quick and efficient to fight a war.
“BHUTTO CAPTURED”
The major who cracked jokes in the midst of a battle appeared very confident of India’s success in the war. “How long can they fight us with a borrowed weapon?” he asked.
“For us, equipment is no problem. Most of it is produced within the country,” he remarked with a broad smile on his face.
“You see, we have captured Bhutto here,” he said and each correspondent reflexively reached for a telephone to convey the startling news before his competitor could.
“Don’t be startled,” continued the Major. “Bhutto is this dog dozing near you. We captured it in this village when we moved in two months ago and he has never left us.” The big story dissipated in peels of laughter.
Bhutto, the dog, guards the entrance of the bunker keeping awake all night and dozes in the sun after day-break.
Reference: Hindustan Standard, 09.12.1971