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General JFR Jacob, the hero of the 1971 India Pakistan war, recalls how former comrades in arms turned into bitter, life-long enemies post partition.
I remember August 15, 1947.
We were on an Anchor Line Liner, which had sailed from Southampton and was about to dock at Bombay. There were many Indian Army officers on board. Some were to opt for India, the others for the newly formed Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
There were celebrations on board, marked by a comradeship which was, however, set to erode rapidly in the days to come.
I arrived in Deolali on August 17, and was told to take over the school of artillery from the British, as also to preside over the division of the assets between India and Pakistan (80 per cent India and 20 per cent Pakistan)
Many officers who opted for Pakistan were still on the gunnery staff course I was taking. They included Major Tikka Khan, who later became known as the Butcher of Bangladesh owing his brutal crackdown in East Pakistan. They left for Pakistan in November 1947.
There were not too many communal incidents in Deolali. After three bodies were dumped in the nulla just outside our quarters, the Pakistani officers on my course requested me to put them up . They left when things quietened down after some three days. They came to me with their problems because they knew I had served with and later commanded a Punjabi Mussalman Battery for five years during World War II.
The horrendous communal massacres that followed Partition are well documented. Lt Gen Francis Tukers book Whilst Memory Serves is a chilling account of the events in the erstwhile Punjab following the Radcliffe Award.
The Pakistani backed tribal invasion of Jammu and Kasmir started in October 1947. The tribals almost reached Srinagar before being driven back. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, on the advice of Lord Mountbatten, took the matter to the UN Security Council on 21 April 1948.
The war ended in December 1948, and the cease fire line recognised by the United Nations became the de facto dividing line between the forces of India and Pakistan.
In 1965, Field Marshal Ayub Khan took a gamble by infiltrating a large number of insurgents into Jammu and Kashmir as part of Operation Gibraltar. These infiltrators were dealt with effectively dealt by the Indian army, but these events led to a full scale war, which saw the largest tank battle since World War II at Khem Karan, where the Pakistan armoured forces were dealt a crippling blow.
But the 1965 war was indecisive, with both sides claiming victory. Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died at Tashkent during the peace negotiations that followed. Shastri displayed competence and guts right upto the last, he was a great man.
Regrettably, the Indian government agreed to return the strategic Haji Pir pass, linking Poonch to the valley, which our troops had captured during that war, to Pakistan. This was indeed a tremendous blunder.
The atrocities committed by the Pakistan army in East Pakistan led to millions of refugees crossing the borders into India. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took a bold and pragmatic decision to help the freedom fighters and to intervene militarily.
As chief of Staff, Eastern Command, I planned a lightning campaign to bypass defended towns and go straight for Dacca, ignoring the very limited objectives of Khulna and Chittagong ordered by army HQ.
A cease fire was proposed by Gen Niazi under the auspices of the United Nations, which involved handing over the government to the UN , withdrawal under the UN ,no reprisals etc. There was no mention of India.
Pakistans prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhuttto, who was in New York attending a Security Council Meeting, rejected the cease fire outright on December 15. Later that night he tore up the Polish resolution at the security council meeting, storming out shouting that Pakistan would never surrender but would fight on.
India declared a unilateral cease fire on December 15. .
On the morning of December 16, I was asked by the Army chief General Sam Manekshaw to go and get a surrender. . Though the draft instrument of surrender I had sent to Delhi was not yet confirmed by government, I went to Dacca with it.
General Niazi had 26,400 troops in Dacca, we had some 3,000 some 30 miles out. But I managed to convince Niazi to accept an unconditional -- and unprecedented--public surrender ,the only one in history.
Back in Islamabad, Niazi was asked by the Hamood ur Rehman commission of enquiry why he had accepted a shameful unconditional public surrender and provided a guard of honour for the Indians when he could have fought on for at least two more weeks, and with the United Nations Security Council in session, had he fought on for even one more day the Indians would have had to go back. He replied that he was blackmailed by me into surrendering. He repeated this in his book Betrayal of East Pakistan.
India took 93.000 Pakistani prisoners of war, but later released them without any preconditions. All the Pakistani generals when interrogated in Fort William, the Eastern Command Headquarters in Calcutta by me swore that they would get even with India. This feeling prevails till this day throughout the Pakistani armed forces.
Unfortunately later at Shimla we were unable to get a satisfactory agreement. Bhutto agreed verbally to recognise the cease fire line as the border, but would not commit it in writing, saying if he did so he would be lynched on return. He promptly reneged on this commitment on his return to Pakistan. As Samuel Goldwyn Mayer, the American film producer once said, ' A verbal contract is not worth the paper its written on!
In 1984, India preempted Pakistani designs to seize the icy heights of Siachen by moving first and occupying strategic heights, resulting in further confrontation. The route to the karakoram pass is now secure, though confrontation there continues.
In 1999, Pakistani designs to cut the Srinagar-Leh road at Kargil were dealt a crushing blow. Though our jawans and officers fought with great gallantry, it was mainly a gunners battle.
We deployed almost 30, 000 troops, 250 guns and fired some 250,000 rounds of artillery ammunition to evict five battalions of paramilitary Pakistani Northern Rifles. When we were running out of ammunition for our 155mm Bofors field guns, the Israelis flew out replenishments.
Our road communications are now secure, and an alternative all weather route via the Rothang Pass is now being constructed.
Today, the Pakistani terror groups, on orders of their Pakistani minders , have changed their tactics in the Kashmir Valley, they are exhorting the young to confront the security forces, encouraging them to sacrifice themselves, they want more to be killed so as to influence international opinion.
As the Mumbai terror attacks show, terrorism is an instrument of Pakistani state policy being used to destabilize India not only in Jammu and Kashmir but in the rest of the country.
No government in India can survive if it gives way on Jammu and Kashmir.
Similarly, no government in Pakistan can last if it is seen as conceding anything on Kashmir.
The Pakistani army under Gen Ashraf Kayani and the ISI who run Pakistan consider India to be their major threat, and they will continue to confront India at every opportunity.
In a clear indication that the US is aware of where the center of power lies in Pakistan, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, on her last visit to Pakistan, called on general Kayani and spent 90 minutes with him.
Meanwhile, the India Pakistan talks will continue . Our foreign minister SM Krishna will shake many hands, our foreign secretary madame Nirupama Rao will smile, smile and smile. The situation in Jammu and Kasmir will continue to slide.
Regrettably I see no resolution of the impasse in the foreseeable future.
Lets hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Editor's note:
- Lt Gen Jacob is not an armchair warrior. He has dealt with terrorism and insurgency over a period of many years.
- As a young major, he took part in intensive counter insurgency operations in Sumatra 1945/1946.
- In 1970, he was responsible for setting up the army counter insurgency school in Mizoram.
- He was in charge of anti-Naxal operations in West Bengal in 1969-1971. The then chief minister Siddharta Shankar Ray used to say: 'Jake and I, we broke the Naxals.'
- In 1974/1975 the army intercepted two Naga gangs going to China [Jacob camped at Mokochong to conduct operations]. The army attacked their bases and finally forced the insurgents to sign the Shillong Accord in 1975. To recap tactics; interrupted their lines of supply for arms and ammunition from China and destroyed their bases within Nagaland. Twelve years of peace followed.
- He oversaw operations in Mizoram and got the hostiles to the negotiating table in Calcutta. [Calcutta Conference] (1978).
- On the other side of the coin, he was responsible in setting up the Bangladesh Mukti Bahini in April 1971, and oversaw their operations.
- In October 2007, He was invited to speak to the American military, State Department and CIA at Capitol Hill. The lecture was broadcast live. The US Marine Corps subsequently requested permission to incorporate parts of the talk in their counterinsurgency doctrine.
I remember August 15, 1947.
We were on an Anchor Line Liner, which had sailed from Southampton and was about to dock at Bombay. There were many Indian Army officers on board. Some were to opt for India, the others for the newly formed Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
There were celebrations on board, marked by a comradeship which was, however, set to erode rapidly in the days to come.
I arrived in Deolali on August 17, and was told to take over the school of artillery from the British, as also to preside over the division of the assets between India and Pakistan (80 per cent India and 20 per cent Pakistan)
Many officers who opted for Pakistan were still on the gunnery staff course I was taking. They included Major Tikka Khan, who later became known as the Butcher of Bangladesh owing his brutal crackdown in East Pakistan. They left for Pakistan in November 1947.
There were not too many communal incidents in Deolali. After three bodies were dumped in the nulla just outside our quarters, the Pakistani officers on my course requested me to put them up . They left when things quietened down after some three days. They came to me with their problems because they knew I had served with and later commanded a Punjabi Mussalman Battery for five years during World War II.
The horrendous communal massacres that followed Partition are well documented. Lt Gen Francis Tukers book Whilst Memory Serves is a chilling account of the events in the erstwhile Punjab following the Radcliffe Award.
The Pakistani backed tribal invasion of Jammu and Kasmir started in October 1947. The tribals almost reached Srinagar before being driven back. Unfortunately, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, on the advice of Lord Mountbatten, took the matter to the UN Security Council on 21 April 1948.
The war ended in December 1948, and the cease fire line recognised by the United Nations became the de facto dividing line between the forces of India and Pakistan.
In 1965, Field Marshal Ayub Khan took a gamble by infiltrating a large number of insurgents into Jammu and Kashmir as part of Operation Gibraltar. These infiltrators were dealt with effectively dealt by the Indian army, but these events led to a full scale war, which saw the largest tank battle since World War II at Khem Karan, where the Pakistan armoured forces were dealt a crippling blow.
But the 1965 war was indecisive, with both sides claiming victory. Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died at Tashkent during the peace negotiations that followed. Shastri displayed competence and guts right upto the last, he was a great man.
Regrettably, the Indian government agreed to return the strategic Haji Pir pass, linking Poonch to the valley, which our troops had captured during that war, to Pakistan. This was indeed a tremendous blunder.
The atrocities committed by the Pakistan army in East Pakistan led to millions of refugees crossing the borders into India. Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took a bold and pragmatic decision to help the freedom fighters and to intervene militarily.
As chief of Staff, Eastern Command, I planned a lightning campaign to bypass defended towns and go straight for Dacca, ignoring the very limited objectives of Khulna and Chittagong ordered by army HQ.
A cease fire was proposed by Gen Niazi under the auspices of the United Nations, which involved handing over the government to the UN , withdrawal under the UN ,no reprisals etc. There was no mention of India.
Pakistans prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhuttto, who was in New York attending a Security Council Meeting, rejected the cease fire outright on December 15. Later that night he tore up the Polish resolution at the security council meeting, storming out shouting that Pakistan would never surrender but would fight on.
India declared a unilateral cease fire on December 15. .
On the morning of December 16, I was asked by the Army chief General Sam Manekshaw to go and get a surrender. . Though the draft instrument of surrender I had sent to Delhi was not yet confirmed by government, I went to Dacca with it.
General Niazi had 26,400 troops in Dacca, we had some 3,000 some 30 miles out. But I managed to convince Niazi to accept an unconditional -- and unprecedented--public surrender ,the only one in history.
Back in Islamabad, Niazi was asked by the Hamood ur Rehman commission of enquiry why he had accepted a shameful unconditional public surrender and provided a guard of honour for the Indians when he could have fought on for at least two more weeks, and with the United Nations Security Council in session, had he fought on for even one more day the Indians would have had to go back. He replied that he was blackmailed by me into surrendering. He repeated this in his book Betrayal of East Pakistan.
India took 93.000 Pakistani prisoners of war, but later released them without any preconditions. All the Pakistani generals when interrogated in Fort William, the Eastern Command Headquarters in Calcutta by me swore that they would get even with India. This feeling prevails till this day throughout the Pakistani armed forces.
Unfortunately later at Shimla we were unable to get a satisfactory agreement. Bhutto agreed verbally to recognise the cease fire line as the border, but would not commit it in writing, saying if he did so he would be lynched on return. He promptly reneged on this commitment on his return to Pakistan. As Samuel Goldwyn Mayer, the American film producer once said, ' A verbal contract is not worth the paper its written on!
In 1984, India preempted Pakistani designs to seize the icy heights of Siachen by moving first and occupying strategic heights, resulting in further confrontation. The route to the karakoram pass is now secure, though confrontation there continues.
In 1999, Pakistani designs to cut the Srinagar-Leh road at Kargil were dealt a crushing blow. Though our jawans and officers fought with great gallantry, it was mainly a gunners battle.
We deployed almost 30, 000 troops, 250 guns and fired some 250,000 rounds of artillery ammunition to evict five battalions of paramilitary Pakistani Northern Rifles. When we were running out of ammunition for our 155mm Bofors field guns, the Israelis flew out replenishments.
Our road communications are now secure, and an alternative all weather route via the Rothang Pass is now being constructed.
Today, the Pakistani terror groups, on orders of their Pakistani minders , have changed their tactics in the Kashmir Valley, they are exhorting the young to confront the security forces, encouraging them to sacrifice themselves, they want more to be killed so as to influence international opinion.
As the Mumbai terror attacks show, terrorism is an instrument of Pakistani state policy being used to destabilize India not only in Jammu and Kashmir but in the rest of the country.
No government in India can survive if it gives way on Jammu and Kashmir.
Similarly, no government in Pakistan can last if it is seen as conceding anything on Kashmir.
The Pakistani army under Gen Ashraf Kayani and the ISI who run Pakistan consider India to be their major threat, and they will continue to confront India at every opportunity.
In a clear indication that the US is aware of where the center of power lies in Pakistan, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, on her last visit to Pakistan, called on general Kayani and spent 90 minutes with him.
Meanwhile, the India Pakistan talks will continue . Our foreign minister SM Krishna will shake many hands, our foreign secretary madame Nirupama Rao will smile, smile and smile. The situation in Jammu and Kasmir will continue to slide.
Regrettably I see no resolution of the impasse in the foreseeable future.
Lets hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
Editor's note:
- Lt Gen Jacob is not an armchair warrior. He has dealt with terrorism and insurgency over a period of many years.
- As a young major, he took part in intensive counter insurgency operations in Sumatra 1945/1946.
- In 1970, he was responsible for setting up the army counter insurgency school in Mizoram.
- He was in charge of anti-Naxal operations in West Bengal in 1969-1971. The then chief minister Siddharta Shankar Ray used to say: 'Jake and I, we broke the Naxals.'
- In 1974/1975 the army intercepted two Naga gangs going to China [Jacob camped at Mokochong to conduct operations]. The army attacked their bases and finally forced the insurgents to sign the Shillong Accord in 1975. To recap tactics; interrupted their lines of supply for arms and ammunition from China and destroyed their bases within Nagaland. Twelve years of peace followed.
- He oversaw operations in Mizoram and got the hostiles to the negotiating table in Calcutta. [Calcutta Conference] (1978).
- On the other side of the coin, he was responsible in setting up the Bangladesh Mukti Bahini in April 1971, and oversaw their operations.
- In October 2007, He was invited to speak to the American military, State Department and CIA at Capitol Hill. The lecture was broadcast live. The US Marine Corps subsequently requested permission to incorporate parts of the talk in their counterinsurgency doctrine.
