India-Pakistan Border-V

1983-84     

 (LINE OF CONTROL on India-Pakistan Border)

(This is a continuation to the conversation set between me (S.G) and my nanu (grandfather),a former brigadier, (Y.R).This initiative was taken so that people know about the incidents that have taken place in the army unfiltered by the media.RAW

Monday, June 2020

S.G- 

    what was the dog's name?

Y.R-

    His name was GADDI. The local shepherds ( the nomads who rear sheep & goats & keep moving from the plains to the hills in summers & vice versa in winters, in search of grazing grounds for their animals; normally keep lots of dogs for the safety of their animals as well as for their own safety. These nomads are known as BAKARWALS or GADDIS ( keepers/ owners of goats & sheep) & their dogs are known as GADDI DOGS. Thus his name was GADDI & he used to respond to it quite naturally.

THE REAR PARTY

Y.R-

    While I was in the FIGHTING BUNKER with the sentries & the Company Commander, I inquired from  both the sentries on duty, as when was the last time when our sentries & Pakistani sentries had exchanged some taunts & abuses? They both as well as their Company Commander  informed me that it had happened on 14 & 15 August (1983). On my inquiry as to why did it happen & what were the causes of taunts/ abused; they told me that on early morning of 14th August ( which Pakistan celebrates as her INDEPENDENCE DAY), the Pakistanis hoisted their national flag on a pole & sang their national anthem. After that one of their sentries shouted in very loud voice saying “ oye Hindustaniyo, aaj hamara Azadi ka Din hai aur hamne bahut sara ghosht aur mithaian banai hain. A jao khane ke liye. Tumhe aisa  badhiya ghost aur mithai kabhi khaane ko nahi mile honge ?( they said that it was their Independence Day & they had prepared special dishes of meat & sweets, to celebrate this day, apart from hoisting their new national flag  & singing their national anthem). The sentry then said “ Sir, hum kyon chup rahte ? Humne bhi jor se awaz lagai aur bola- pahle tum apna jhanda neeche karo nahin to uska bhi wahi haal kar denge jo tumhare jhande ka haal Bangladesh mein 2971 mein kiya tha. Aur kal  hamara bhi Independence Day hai. Tum log aa jaana hamara national anthem gane aur khana khne ke liye. Hum tumhe ghosht ke ilawa kheer aur halwa bhi khilayenge( you better lower your national flag out of our sight otherwise we would shoot it down as we did in Bangladesh in 1971. As far as meat, sweets & are concerned, come tomorrow & join us in hoisting our national flag & singing our national anthem. After that we would give you not only sweets but also KHEER & HALWA). Thereafter we shouted abuses at each other for a while, after which both sides went quiet.

After lunch on the next day, U returned to my Headquarter which was just about a km away.

Y.R-

    In those four days of my whirlwind tour of my PALTAN, I had walked almost 20 to 22 kms in high mountainous area of heights ranging from 11500 feet to 14500 feet, had visited the entire area of my operational responsibility, had met almost all the 1000 odd officers/ J.C.Os/ Jawans of The PALTAN & had seen my entire deployment. In fact, at the end of the first day of my outing, when I had walked from my Headquarter to ATMA-1 POST, I had heard some men from my Protection  Party whispering to each other as to what had happened to this OLD MAN today that he does not seem to get tired at all. ( In the Army, the C.O. of The PALTAN is generally referred to as the Old Man since he is generally the oldest in age in the unit).

By then I knew the exact locations of all my Companies, Platoons, other POSTS, the locations of all major & heavy weapons like Machine Guns etc, &  knew the names of all the Post Commanders. I had built a sort of personal rapport with all of them & I was now in a position to refer to all the POSTS by the names of their respective commanders.

Y.R-

    On the day after reaching my Headquarter, I went around the “D” Company, which was deployed close to my Headquarter  & interacted with their POST commanders too. On that day itself, in the afternoon,  I then held a very long & serious professional discussions with my advisors ( the ADJUTANT, the QUARTER MASTER, the DOCTOR, the SUBEDAR MAJOR, the RELIGIOUS TEACHER ( Pandit ji) & the Company Commander of “D” Company on the best way forward for us to ensure that (a) all the troops remained healthy & physically fit; mentally & emotionally strong & had some means of relaxation as well as entertainment; (b) that our telephone connections to all the POSTS were operational at all times; (c) that supplies of rations, sports equipment & newspapers / magazines remained undisturbed & (d) that some arrangements were made for the troops to hear the daily news on radios (e) that the FIGHTING as well as the SLEEPING/ RESTIN BUNKERS at all the POSTS were well maintained at all times so that they did not crumble under the weight of heavy rains & heavy snow & (f) that some sort of routine was worked out for all of them so that they did not feel bored.

After a longish session of that conference, certain major issues were decided , which were as under :-

(a) we shall start buying more newspapers & magazines in various South Indian languages- Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada- Hindi & English, through Field Post Offices ( there are no markets in such Field Areas & all the needs of supplies of newspapers & magazines; sending of money orders, buying of Postal Insurances etc are done through the hain of  Field Post Offices) so that each POST gets adequate number of these publications- normally these are the DAK EDITIONS & reach the troops after about a week.

(b) we shall provide volley balls, Basket balls, Carrom board games, Chess games etc to all the POSTS in adequate quantity.

(c) we shall retain a few ponies @ porters in our area for supplying of essential items to the POSTS even during the snowfall season & shall provide them with Living Bunkers in the Headquarter area itself.  

(d) since the TV sets did not catch any Indian TV station, we shall buy adequate number of transistor sets so that all POSTS would have at least one or two of them for listening to the news & music etc.

(e) the Adjutant, the Quartermaster, the doctor & Pandit ji  would visit all the POSTS at least once in every three months ( their visit programmes would be coordinated by the Adjutant). & 

(f) I & Subedar Major would visit all the POSTS once every month.

Tuesday, June 2020

THE BAD WEATHER

Y.R-

     While a major part of The PALTAN was in Leepa Valley, a small “ REAR PARTY” had been left behind in the area of Naugam/ Handwara( about 25 kms short of our location, towards Srinagar), with one officer ( a Captain), one J.C.O. , about 10-12 Jawans, all our vehicles & heavy baggage which was not needed in the Valley. Since it was extremely difficult to send someone from THE PALTAN to Srinagar ( which was about 80-90 kms away & was the closest & the only market from where we could buy our requirements), we used to give our requirements to the INCHARGE REAR PARTY on telephone( as I have already mentioned, we could speak to him only twice a day & not whenever we wanted to do so), who then used to make arrangements to buy things from Srinagar & send them to our location. This process used to take about a week or so.  

So, on the next day after my conference, In charge REAR PARTY was given the list of all the items we wanted. Out of those items, we already had enough number of Volleyballs, Footballs, indoor games like Carom , Chess, Playing Cards & library books in almost all the languages etc lying in our REAR area ( we had brought all our sports gear/ items & complete library from Dehradun knowing that these may be needed in Lipa Valley). So, these items & books were sent to us from the REAR in the next  3-4 days, by the In charge REAR PARTY. . He had placed request with the Army Postal Service for additional newspapers & magazines. However, he had to go to Srinagar City himself to buy about 20 Transistors for all the POSTS & we received them also in the next one week or so.  Our additional newspapers & magazines too started coming in about 10 days. Thus, in the next two weeks, all our POSTS had received or had started receiving their requirements. Some Volleyball & Basketball grounds, which had been prepared by the previous PALTAN, were already there. Those were done up by our Jawans & they gradually started playing these as well as indoor games as part of their routine almost every day.

Y.R-

    In those areas, it rains very heavily from June to August, with lots of thundering of clouds, lightening striking the trees , the hill tops, animals & even human beings. Once it struck our PALTAN area, completely destroyed a few trees , struck our Bunker which had our Field Telephone Exchange in it & killed our Jawan who was manning that exchange & completely destroyed our exchange. It was a very ghastly sight. Of course, we quickly evacuated that Jawan to our First Aid Post, doctor examined him & tried to revive him but without success. Since the weather was so bad that his body could not have been evacuated beyond the Valley, for many days manually & even the helicopters could not have landed there to carry his body out of the Lipa Valley ; his body was cremated there itself with full Military honour,after two days.

Y.R-

    After the rainfall, it used to be a long season of snowfall ( from September till March next year- for almost 6 months). But, irrespective of the weather, all my Advisors used to visit all the POSTS every quarter & I, along with the  Subedar Major & the Protection Party; used to do so every month. Of course, due to the great inconvenience that used to be caused to the Jawans at ATMA-1 POST due to my visit; I used to visit them only during day time without spending a night there. Yes, once again;  in January 1984,  when the snowfall & the winter were at their peak; I spent one more night at ATMA-1, in the same way as I had done in June 1983, to reassure not only those 10 brave Jawans who were manning that POST but also, through them, the whole PALTAN that I would be with them through thick & thin & they must not feel lonely, isolated or neglected. 

During my monthly visits, I used to go to each FIGHTING as well as SLEEPING/ RESTING BUNKER to meet every one. Also, on the last Sunday of every calendar month, I used to talk to all the POST COMMANDERS on telephone, between 4.0 PM & 6.0 PM, to check if they either had some problems of any kind or were wanting to convey some suggestions to me. 

Once in February 1984, one of our J.C.Os. of “B” Company- the ATMA Company, fell sick. Our Doctor had placed FIRST AID BOXES in all the POSTS with necessary basic medicines & instructions for their use. When this J.C.O. did not improve for 48 hours, inspire of having talked to the Doctor & having taken some medicines from their First Aid Box, the Doctor advised that the patient be brought to his First Aid Post for his clinical examination & treatment. The weather was very bad- it was continuously snowing for the last 3-4 days-& bringing the patient to the Headquarter was extremely difficult. Nevertheless, since it was a question of his life or death; he was brought from their POST to the Doctor’s First Aid Post, on a makeshift stretcher by 9 Jawans covering a distance of about 3.5 kms in about 4 hours. The Doctor found the patient quite critical & tried to treat him with whatever medicines he had in his stock. This treatment went on throughout the night but there was no improvement. Therefore, on Doctor’s recommendation, we requested for this patient’s air evacuation by helicopter on urgent basis.

Y.R-

    Although, we had requested for air evacuation at about midnight for early morning evacuation but it kept snowing the whole night & continued in the morning too. From morning onwards the pilots of the helicopter & us were talking to each other on the secure radio network; they were wanting to know about the weather condition & we were anxious that our man should be evacuated at the earliest possible. After sunrise, the helicopter came in the sky over our area( we had given them the location of our Helipad in advance & they thus knew where we were), since it was clear above the clouds & we could hear the helicopter’s noise though we could not see it. All this while, the pilots & us were talking to each other. The pilots requested that we should fire some coloured shots from pistol to indicate our location, which we did repeatedly but they just could not see our shots. After flying for about 45 minutes, they went back & we had to evacuate our patient over the steep dirt track of 4-5 kms, upto across the TUTMARI GALI PASS , which took our 20 Jawans 4 hours to reach where we had positioned our INCHARGE REAR PARTY with a vehicle. He was further evacuated to the nearest Army Hospital where he was treated  for almost 2 weeks & returned to The PALTAN after that. All this while, we kept praying for his speedy recovery & good health.

Y.R-

    I would now tell you about an incident which happened to me in the last week of February that year(1984). The house of NOIDA where we are living now, had been allotted to me by ARMY WELAFRE HOUSUNG ORGANISATION ( A.W.H.O.) sometime in 1983. After that, I had applied for Home Loan from H.D.F.C. In the first week of February 1984, a letter was received by our Incharge Rear Party from A.W.H.O. ( the letter was in my name). Since the weather was very bad & the movement of men was prohibited between our location & the Rear area due to fear of avalanches; the Incharge Rear Party spike to me on telephone. & informed me about that letter. He wanted to know if he could open my letter & read the same to me on the telephone & get further instructions from me. I asked him to open it & read it to me, which he did. The letter said that my Home Loan had been arranged & I would have to come to Delhi to sign the Loan Papers  personally. The Financing Corporation( till then HDFC was just a Finance Corporation & had not become a Bank) would not accept anyone else’s signatures & there was thus no option other than I going to Delhi myself before 01 March. I asked him to keep the letter with himself & I would let him know what further action he was to take.