HAIDER
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CHANDIGARH: Forty-three years ago, when young Flight Lieutenant (who retired as Air Commodore) Jawahar Lal Bhargava ejected from his aircraft in Pakistan territory after being shot down, he had almost made it to India by posing as Flt Lt Mansur Ali of Pakistan Air Force. However, as luck would have it, his ignorance about the "Kalma" (testimony of Islamic faith) made him a prisoner of war ( PoW).
Talking to TOI, the 73-year-old veteran, Air Commodore Bhargava, who had to spent almost a year in Pakistan during 1971 Indo-Pak war after his HF-24 9 aircraft — popularly known as "Marut" — was shot down, recalled how an IAF pilot deals with the situation after landing in enemy territory.
Bhargava, who recently shifted to Panchkula from Gurgaon, said he took off from Air Force station Barmer (Rajasthan) on the morning of December 5, 1971, on his first sortie to launch an attack in the enemy territory.
Around 9am, his aircraft was hit by ground fire and he decided to eject. His parachute had barely opened when he touched down and the "Marut" had crashed into a sand dune.
He immediately took out some items from the survival pack, buried his G-suit under the bushes, set his watch on Pakistan standard time and started marching away from the aircraft.
While he was struggling to find some way to escape to Indian territory, he ran into three people from an adjacent village. Bhargava introduced himself as pilot Mansoor Ali of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), whose plane was shot down by Indian forces. He even showed them Pakistan currency. They took him to the village, where his real test began.
On entering the village, he was surrounded by a large number of residents. Among them was a school headmaster who was apparently not convinced that Bhargava was a PAF pilot. He started posing questions on Bhargava's native place in Pakistan. "When I said that I was from Rawalpindi, he asked me where did I stay? When I told him that I resided on Mall Road, he said I was in an Indian village. When I requested them to let me go back to Pakistan, he assured me that he was only testing me."
Bhargava planned to escape from the village at 8pm on the pretext of going to relieve himself, but to his surprise, four Pakistani rangers arrived there — apparently called by the headmaster — and began grilling him.
"They did not believe me when I reiterated that I was Mansur Ali of PAF. Around 9pm, one of them, Awaj Ali, asked me to read the Kalma. He even recited it and asked me to repeat it, but I could not. He then threatened me to tell the truth or they would extract it some other way. I told them that I was Flt Lt Jawahar Lal Bhargava of the IAF and they could do whatever they wanted to with me, even kill me," said the veteran.
Thereafter, he was blindfolded, handcuffed and handed over to the Pakistani army on December 8, 1971.
Bhargava said if he had been able to repeat the Kalma that day, he would have escaped from Pakistan that very night.
Talking to TOI, the 73-year-old veteran, Air Commodore Bhargava, who had to spent almost a year in Pakistan during 1971 Indo-Pak war after his HF-24 9 aircraft — popularly known as "Marut" — was shot down, recalled how an IAF pilot deals with the situation after landing in enemy territory.
Bhargava, who recently shifted to Panchkula from Gurgaon, said he took off from Air Force station Barmer (Rajasthan) on the morning of December 5, 1971, on his first sortie to launch an attack in the enemy territory.
Around 9am, his aircraft was hit by ground fire and he decided to eject. His parachute had barely opened when he touched down and the "Marut" had crashed into a sand dune.
He immediately took out some items from the survival pack, buried his G-suit under the bushes, set his watch on Pakistan standard time and started marching away from the aircraft.
While he was struggling to find some way to escape to Indian territory, he ran into three people from an adjacent village. Bhargava introduced himself as pilot Mansoor Ali of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), whose plane was shot down by Indian forces. He even showed them Pakistan currency. They took him to the village, where his real test began.
On entering the village, he was surrounded by a large number of residents. Among them was a school headmaster who was apparently not convinced that Bhargava was a PAF pilot. He started posing questions on Bhargava's native place in Pakistan. "When I said that I was from Rawalpindi, he asked me where did I stay? When I told him that I resided on Mall Road, he said I was in an Indian village. When I requested them to let me go back to Pakistan, he assured me that he was only testing me."
Bhargava planned to escape from the village at 8pm on the pretext of going to relieve himself, but to his surprise, four Pakistani rangers arrived there — apparently called by the headmaster — and began grilling him.
"They did not believe me when I reiterated that I was Mansur Ali of PAF. Around 9pm, one of them, Awaj Ali, asked me to read the Kalma. He even recited it and asked me to repeat it, but I could not. He then threatened me to tell the truth or they would extract it some other way. I told them that I was Flt Lt Jawahar Lal Bhargava of the IAF and they could do whatever they wanted to with me, even kill me," said the veteran.
Thereafter, he was blindfolded, handcuffed and handed over to the Pakistani army on December 8, 1971.
Bhargava said if he had been able to repeat the Kalma that day, he would have escaped from Pakistan that very night.
Urdu in India is much simpler and much less Persianized.
I pronounce Hindi wrong too. 
