Four Miles to Freedom
Page 15
April 1971
India shelters an estimated 4 million refugees from Bangladesh. That number will grow to close to 10 million.
May 1971
India starts aiding the resistance in East Pakistan (the Mukti Bahini) and prepares for war.
3 December 1971
Pakistan launches air raids on Indian Air Force bases. India declares war on Pakistan.
7 December 1971
India recognizes the independence of Bangladesh.
16 December 1971
All Pakistani troops in Bangladesh surrender.
17 December 1971
India and Pakistan agree to a ceasefire. India holds approximately 93,000 prisoners of war; Pakistan, less than 1000.
20 December 1971
Yahya Khan resigns. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto becomes president of Pakistan.
2 July 1972
The Simla Agreement outlines the plans for withdrawal of troops and normalization of relations between India and Pakistan. It does not include an exchange of POWs.
24 November 1972
In a unilateral gesture Bhutto announces that he is sending the Indian POWs home.
1 December 1972
All POWs captured on the western front are exchanged.
28 August 1973
India and Pakistan sign the Delhi Accord. It allows the release of 93,000 Pakistani POWs held in India and over 2,00,000 Bangladeshis stranded in Pakistan.
Bibliography
Published Sources
Ahamed, Syeed, The Curious Case of 195 War Criminals, The Forum, May 2010 (http://www.thedailystar.net/forum/2010/may/curious.htm)
A Handbook for Travellers in India, Burma and Ceylon, 13th edition (John Murray 1929)
Bass, Gary J., The Blood Telegram, Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide (Alfred A. Knopf 2013)
Chowdhary, Lt. Col. S.S., I Was a Prisoner of War in Pakistan (Lancer International 1985)
Jafa, D.S., Three Countries One People (Minerva Press 1999)
Jagan Mohan, P.V.S. and Chopra, Samir, The Indian−Pakistan War of 1965 (Manohar 2005)
Khan, Arshad Sami, Three Presidents and an Aid (Pentagon Press 2008)
Lal, P.C., My Years with the I.A.F (Lancer, 2nd edition, 2008)
Quasim, Syed Shah Abul, ‘Excerpts: Life in Camp 29,’ Life Story of an Ex-Soldier, self-published (http://archives.dawn.com/weekly/booksarchive/030427/books3.htm
Sinhji, Harish, ‘The Escape Story,’ from P.C. Lal, My Years with the I.A.F. pp. 346−69
Talbot, Ian, Pakistan, a New History (Amaryllis 2012)
Times of India 1972
Unpublished Sources
Athale, Anil, Memories of a Prisoner of War, 6 December 2010, http://uswww.rediff.com
Bhargava, Jawahar Lal, How I Got Captured and POW Saga Parts I−VIII, http:marutfans,wordpress.com
Grewal, M.S., Gary 1971
Parulkar, Dilip, letters to Inder Khanna: 14 April 1963, 28 April and 10 October 1964, undated (from the UK), 10 October 1965, 9 January 1972, 7 March 1972
Singh H.K., Story of a Hunter Pilot- 71 War
Singh, Tejwant, Visit to Historical Gurdwara Punja Sahib at Hasan Abdal, In the Aftermath of the Escape, Other Experiences in the POW Camp Rawalpindi, Other Experiences in the POW camp Lyallpur
Interviews
Bhargava, Jawahar Lal
Coelho, Bernard Anthony
Grewal, Malvinder Singh
Jafa, Dhirendra Singh
Kuruvilla, Kariyadil Cheriyan
Parulkar, Dilip
Pethia, Aditya Vikram
Singh, Tejwant
Sinjhi, Kaveri
Acknowledgements
My first thanks must be to my husband, Air Commodore Manbir Singh Vr.C,VM (retired) who suggested that I write this story and provided his support and technical knowledge all along the way.
Without Dilip Parulkar, there would be no story. I thank him for his good humour in answering many questions, digging up material, suggesting books to read, and introducing me to other POWs.
I have never met Harish Sinhji, who died in 2004, but I have him to thank for some of the most vivid details of the night of the escape and the capture the next morning. He was the first of the POWs to write about his experience. Fortunately his account was published as an appendix to the memoir of Air Chief P.C. Lal in 1986.
Soon after I began this project I asked Grewal, Dilip’s partner, to record his memories of capture and escape. The other POWs called him Gary, so he labelled his account Gary 1971. That document has been valuable in itself and has been the starting point for many questions.
Eventually I was able to get in touch with Pethia, Jafa, Kuruvilla, Coelho, Bhargava, Tejwant Singh, and Kaveri and Vikram Sinhji. Without exception, each person has cooperated in this project by answering questions and, in some cases, offering new insights.
I thank Jawahar Lal Bhargava and Tejwant Singh for being particularly generous in sharing materials with me. Both men are writers themselves and could have regarded me as an intruder on their territory, but the reaction of each man was the opposite. Bhargava provided me with several of his writings on the web that I had missed and answered many, many questions. Tejwant Singh shared his memories and introduced me to Coelho, Kuruvilla, Pethia and Kaveri Sinhji. As well as suggesting books for me to read, he provided most of the photos and maps for this book.
Thanks also to my agent Kanishka Gupta (The Writer’s Side) for recognizing the merits of this book, and to Meru Gokhale and Archana Shankar of Random House India for facilitating its production.
Flight Lieutenant A. Vikram Pethia, prisoner of war, being received by his mother and sister, 8 May 1972, Palam
Aditya Vikram Pethia
Former POWs of the 1971 War on arrival at Lyallpur (now Faisalabad) Jail, end August 1972, watching Janamashthami celeberations by Indian jawans (POWs)
Flight Lieutenant Tejwant Singh presenting an oil painting made by him to the Chairperson of Pakistan Red Cross
Flight Lieutenant M.S. Grewal meeting his next of kin
Former POWs of the 1971 War arriving for a reception at Ram Bagh by citizens of Amritsar on 1 December 1972
Former POWs of the 1971 War coming out of an AVRO at Palam on 1 December 1972
Former POWs of the 1971 War on arrival at Palam on 1 December 1972
Malvinder Singh Grewal, February 2013
Dilip Parulkar, February 2013
The author with Anu and Jawahar Lal Bhargava, February 2013