If Pak knew plan, why did they lose?

RUBBISHING GAUHAR Ayub Khan?s claim in his book that a brigadier rank officer of the Indian Army sold the 1965 war plan to his father Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Pakistan?s first military dictator, war veteran Captain (retired) KC Mehrotra said the author was not specific whether it was the April plan or the September plan.

RUBBISHING GAUHAR Ayub Khan’s claim in his book that a brigadier rank officer of the Indian Army sold the 1965 war plan to his father Field Marshal Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s first military dictator, war veteran Captain (retired) KC Mehrotra said the author was not specific whether it was the April plan or the September plan.

HT Image

He dismissed Gauhar’s Ayub Khan’s allegations as false and baseless.

Talking to HT Lucknow Live, Captain Mehrotra, who joined the Indian Army in 1963 rose to become the adjutant of the battalion vanguard of the brigade, said had it not been for intervention by the USA and the UK, India had almost gone to war against Pakistan in April, 1965.

“If he was talking about war-like situation in April, there were many sources by which the war plan could have been leaked to the enemy.

“It could have even been through spies, but not through any officer of the Indian army,” said the war veteran. I can say this because my heart and soul were in the war, he added.

Substantiating his claim that the Pakistanis was not aware of India’s war plan, Captain Mehrotra argued, “Why did the enemy army not resist the Indian attack in 1965 September?,”  he asked, adding, “It was a cake walk for us up to the outskirts of Lahore,” he quipped.

He further stated that the Indian army attacked Pakistan simultaneously from three different positions; Khem Karn, Attari and Khalra. Emphasising his point, he said, if the Pakistanis had known about the war plan, why didn’t they resist our move at these points? I can’t digest the fact that the dictator knew about the plan and let us attack without any resistance,” said the war veteran.

About records showing resistance, he said there was a  ‘resistance of the sort’ from a battalion that had inadvertently come to the firing range and the 40-odd armed personnel guarding the customs post, but they ran away without offering resistance.

Even the so-called resistance wouldn’t have happened had a sepoy accidentally triggered off at 2.30 am on September 6, 1965.

About taking up the issue with the government, he said, he had been making the issue public through media, and it was now up to the government to do the rest and bury the issue that has been raked up for no reason.