Indo-Pakistani War of 1965, Legacy of Partition: Military Veteran

As the country marks another anniversary of the 1965 War, an Indian Army veteran has revealed how the Pakistani military once took the Indian armed forces by surprise and was almost on the verge of capturing Srinagar.

It happened during the initial phase of the military conflict between India and Pakistan, he said.

The remarks of Major General (Retired) A.P.S. Chauhan came on the occasion of the anniversary of the 1965 Indo-Pakistan war in an interview with Sputnik India.

In his view, it wasn't actually a big win for New Delhi in the light that it had to vacate Pakistani territory following peace talks between the governments of the two warring nations.

According to him, this historical context was behind the 1965 war.

Among other things, the former Indian military officer asserted that India did accomplish a dominant triumph over Pakistan in 1971, but things were a bit different in 1965.

Maj. Gen. APS Chauhan: The genesis of the 1965 war between India and Pakistan, and all other conflicts with Islamabad, lies in the legacy we inherited from the British at the time of our independence in 1947. There's little doubt that the Anglo-Saxon trait of divide and rule has played out in the sub-continent to this day.

Interestingly, he was only given a month to finalize the boundaries of India and the new nation of Pakistan, which he completed unjustly, by simply drawing a line on the map of undivided India.

This line drawn by Radcliffe, subsequently, sowed the seeds of animosity between India and Pakistan in the years to come.

It is this religion-based red line that acts as a fulcrum to Pakistan, which sees its military as an asset, emphasizing that without the Army there is no Pakistan.

On the other hand, the Pakistan military sees conflicts as an essential requirement because if there is no conflict, the army is not needed.

Coming back to why India attacked Lahore in September 1965, let me be very categorical. We had no plans for the 1965 war.

What happened was that in August 1965, Pakistan wanted to assert itself after being pushed by the West, particularly the US, and dislocate us (read India) from Jammu and Kashmir.

So, they made a plan to destroy the Akhnoor bridge over the Chenab River to cut off supplies of the Indian armed forces stationed in Ladakh, and other areas of Jammu and Kashmir.

However, they did not succeed in their plans. The Indian Army neutralized their troops, and repelled the attack.

Then came the Pakistan's operation "Gibraltar". Operation Gibraltar was like a gushing torrent as they sent their light infantry across all ranges of Jammu and Kashmir.

I was then a Major in the Indian Army, and had to wage a 15-day battle with the Pakistanis in a place called Sonamarg in Kashmir.

I must say that their plan was very good, which shook India.

The Pakistanis aimed to capture Srinagar and cut off Ladakh, and they nearly pulled it off. For this Pakistan had deployed its Northern Light infantry, comprising soldiers specializing in mountain warfare.

As the Pakistanis reached the outskirts of Srinagar, the Indian military leadership was alarmed about the prospect of the neighboring country cutting off their access to Ladakh.

That is how, then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, was convinced to open another front to divert Pakistan's focus from Kashmir. In this context, the attack on Lahore was planned by the Indian Army to divert Pakistan's attention from there.

Maj. Gen. Chauhan: The Indian Army can outsmart any military force in the world if it gets support from the top political leadership of the country. However, our political leadership over the years has been bound by geopolitical considerations rather than military ones.

Something of this sort happened in the 1965 war as well, when we had to vacate the Pakistani territory which we had captured after our PM Lal Bahadur Shastri signed the Tashkent declaration in a peace deal brokered by the then Soviet Union, and Britain.

Yet I would say that the Indian armed forces dominated the Pakistan military once our counter-offensive, starting with the attack on Lahore began.

But there's no shame in saying, that they took us completely by surprise during the initial part of Operation Gibraltar when they came perilously close to gaining control over Srinagar.

Nonetheless, we successfully managed to throw them out of our land and restored our original positions.

Maj. Gen. Chauhan: Pakistan may claim victory because they got back their territory, though it was only after the West and Russia intervened and our leadership decided to vacate their land.

Certainly, not losing territory could be a big thing for Pakistan because it is a country that cannot manage its affairs.

As far as I am concerned, 1965 should not be counted as a major victory for India, considering we lost thousands of troops in combat. And there's a reason why I am saying that, as we did not gain anything except restoring the status quo.

Yes, we can claim a commanding victory in the 1971 war when we succeeded in breaking Pakistan, which resulted in the formation of Bangladesh. That was a dominant victory.

But in the context of the 1965 war, I would say that India and Pakistan achieved parity as neither lost an inch of their territory.