The Hardest Day
With the 18 Div failing to create the necessary breakthrough in the Rajasthan Desert to exploit, the 33 Div’s mission was drastically changed. We (initially HQ 33 Div and 60 Bde only) were ordered on Dec 7, 1971 to move post-haste from our concentration area in Tarinda near Rahimyar Khan to reinforce the 18 Div’s beleaguered 55 Bde at Chor and Umerkot in the Thar Desert 400 miles south.
With Hyderabad in danger, the urgency forced road and rail movement during daylight. We faced sporadic air attacks. However, we took the full brunt of relentless Indian air assault bent on stopping us on the road from Mirpurkhas to Umerkot and Chor throughout the day on December 12.
55 Bde’s covering forces failed to effectively delay the Indian advance on Chor. With full air cover, the Indians were moving another two Infantry Bdes along with another tank regiment to reinforce the two infantry brigades and two tank regiments with full complement of the Corps artillery already facing Chor. Not quickly exploiting their initial success, they missed a golden opportunity. By the evening of Dec 12, we had stabilised 55 Bde’s forward defended localities (FDLs) from Chor to Umerkot and inspite of the fatigue were preparing to carry out local attacks all along the front. Waves of PAF aircraft appeared early on Dec 15, 1971 to launch effective low-level attacks on the Indians up and down the railway line.
Our Commanding Officer (CO) 44 Punjab (now 4 Sind) Lt-Col (later Brig) Mohammad Taj, SJ & Bar, was simply magnificent during battle. Oblivious to everything else he would simply get on with the business of taking the war to the enemy. Sent to recce the Indian flank near Goth Akhraj, the Unit Intelligence Officer (IO) 2/Lt (later Maj) Hanif Butt (nickname ‘Singhawala’) drove his jeep, as subalterns without a care in the world are apt to do, wireless antenna and moustache waving, back through the Indian positions.
We held our breath but the Indians were too surprised to react, “the shortest route”, Hanif explained. He reported no movement beyond Goth Akhraj to the Chor-Khokhrapar railway line. A wonderful host, Hanif owns a few gas stations in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA.
Col Taj’s plan, duly endorsed by the newly arrived GOC Lt-Gen Sharif (Maj Gen Naseer was wounded on Dec 12), was simple. Two rifle companies riding a squadron of Guides Cavalry tanks commanded by my good friend Maj Fahim Attaullah Jan (now doing business in Canada) were to cut across the desert on Dec 16 from Goth Akhraj and hit the Indian position astride the Chor–Khokhrapar railway line. The rest of the battalion was to follow mounted on trucks. Once astride the railway line, we were holding the blacking position. Cut off from their logistics, particularly water and ammunition, the Indians would have to dislodge us.
The news about the surrender in East Pakistan early in the evening of December 16 was taken to be deliberate disinformation meant to affect our morale. At first many refused to believe it. When it did sink in there was a stunned silence. Despite the cacophony of battlefield noises, officers and men openly wept. The war remained still very much on for us in the desert, the night sky alight and aflame with artillery shells and tracer bullets. When the GHQ cancelled our intended attack the enormity of it all set in, many giving vent to their feelings of frustration – universal grief turned into desperate rage.
Col Taj gave us a severe dressing down, “Concentrate on what will happen here. The lives of your men depend on you”, or words to that effect. This was no time for reflection or analysis; our immediate future was not very bright. Lifespan in the battlefield is difficult to predict beyond a few hours. What is real is how to keep your men alive, do the task given to you and in the process try and stay alive yourself. While the smell of cordite cannot wipe out the smell of defeat, in the battlefield you tend to shut out what’s happening elsewhere.
Late 16th evening, the CO called to ask if I had any contact with Captains Naseer Tariq and Fahim. Close to our left flank, I found Fahim (later Maj Gen) and Tariq (later Maj) forming up their rifle companies to attack the Indians on their own. When I asked them what in the name of God they were doing, I was told, “better to die today than feel the shame for the rest of our lives”. Using my best sales pitch to talk them out of this madness, they were finally convinced it was better to let their men live – to die another day for their country.
My close friend Capt (later Maj and IG Police) Mian Zaheer commanding Delta Company 48 Punjab (with two tanks of 29 Cav) beat off an Indian Bde attack three miles south of Rangpur (than East Pakistan) with great élan and spirit throughout Dec 16. Sub Karam Dad (29 Cav) was killed late that day when his tank was directly hit. Just before establishing contact with 22 Marathas on the orders of his Bde Comd Brig Naeem at about 5 pm, Mian Sahib met another good friend Capt (later Brig) Yasub Dogar (SSG) who told him about the surrender.
Of the three dozen plus infantry, armour and artillery units fighting in East Pakistan, only the HQ element of one infantry unit actually surrendered before Dec 16, 1971. All were not only fighting but willing to fight on when the orders of surrender from the Eastern Command finally filtered through. While unfortunately not born every day, this country has been blessed with men like Taj, Naseer Tariq, Fahim, Hanif, Fahim Ataullah Jan, Mian Zaheer, Yasub Dogar etc. Siachen, Kargil, Swat and Fata etc have shown that the Pakistan Army is lucky to have such soldiers in its rank and file.
The army in West Pakistan was mostly oblivious to what was happening in East Pakistan, all information being screened through government filters presenting a one-sided picture devoid of reality. The country’s physical separation took place on December 16, 1971, but after March 25 it was only a matter of time. Anybody who said otherwise was considered a traitor. Not many (Air Marshal Asghar Khan and Lt-Gen Sahibzada Yaqub Khan being honourable exceptions) stood up then to be counted by that special description of ‘traitor’. The ultimate irony – four decades later that divorce from reality in favour of perception not only persists but is pervasive.
Because we failed to treat our own people as equals, the finest experiment in nationhood in its time came to grief and became two countries. Some days in your life never go away. While one may not actually remember what one was doing on that day, what happened leaves an indelible mark in your memory. One cannot look back at such history without emotions. December 16, 1971 simply added a permanent scar on one’s psyche.
Tariq and Fahim were right, some of us will live and die with the anguish of that the hardest day of our lives.
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