INTELLIGENCE: 71 War - Enduring mysteries by Maj.Gen.(Retd.) Sheru Thapliyal, SM

Saturday, February 6, 2010

71 War - Enduring mysteries by Maj.Gen.(Retd.) Sheru Thapliyal, SM - May be of your great interest

Mysteries have a strange character, they grow and complicate with time. Every step in war is shrouded in mysteries, great wars have given birth to greater mysteries.

1971 victory was one of the greatest victories in a long time. It also ensconces great mysteries of the war theater. What was the initial plan of Indian Army? Why India couldn't make most of the victory and attendant euphoria?

· A story does the round from time to time that Mrs. Gandhi wanted Sam to be a part of Indian delegation for Shimla conference in June 1972. Sam felt that an Army Chief was too high an appointment for such a delegation. He accordingly earmarked a Lt. Col. from Military Operations Directorate as a member of delegation which was turned down by the government. It is a matter of conjecture whether deliberations at Shimla would have taken a different turn had Sam been a part of the delegation. One thing is sure. He would not have agreed to return all captured territory and all prisoners without getting something substantial in return – perhaps solution of Jammu and Kashmir problem. Alas we would never know.

· As would be seen from the map, the shortest axis to Dhaka is the Northern Axis from Shillong to Dhaka. The biggest advantage of this axis is the fact that no river crossing was involved while in all the three axes, a major river crossing was involved. It is indeed a mystery that allocation of forces to the Northern Axis was just HQ 101 Communication Zone Area with one brigade. In the event they had the last laugh since they were the first to reach Dhaka.

· "A simple fact remains that commanders of both sides did a disservice to their nations because map point NJ 9842 was not identified on ground and LC not delineated North of it both in 1949 and 1972"- Pravin Sawhney, The Defence Makeover. Pakistan launched cartographic warfare after '71 war and showed the Line of Control joining Point NJ 9842 to Karakoram Pass. Soon many world Atlases started showing this line on their maps. We had not shown any line on our maps and it is only after our occupation of Siachen Glacier that we started showing a line from Point NJ 9842 to Indira Col and calling it the Actual Ground Position Line to distinguish it from the Line of Control. Since all 'dramatis personae' are no longer alive, the reason for this costly mistake will forever remain wrapped in mystery.

This article unravels and brings forward some more Mysteries of our greatest military win.

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