Missing in Action, stories that make a case for Indo-Pak talks
By
Vijaya Pushkarna
Maj
Ashok K Suri was the Quartermaster of 5 Assam Regiment days before war broke
out in December 1971. He had just picked up his rank, was all set to
marry, and also play hockey, when he took charge of a small convoy of vehicles
containing arms and ammunitions and rations. As the story went, he came under
heavy shelling, was wounded, rushed to a hospital where he breathed his last. A
Capt B S Negi cremated his body.
That's what the young Major’s father,R S Suri, was informed on Jan 21, 1972, about
five weeks after Pakistan surrendered. It was a story he did not buy from the
word go. He had by then received four contradictory information about Ashok’s
death: that he was wounded in action on 5 Dec, that he expired on 15 Dec, that
the Commanding Officer of 5 Assam came to know of Ashok’s death only on 7 Dec.
The
father who ran a yoga centre put on his boots to find out the truth. Rather
find his son. This rare, determined father gave up everything to remain singularly focused on tracing his son, virtually
banging his head on a wall of a nonresponsive state, in a denial mode.
Did
my Ashok die a hero’s death, was he wounded in action, was he alive, where was
he, where is the dead body, where are his belongings? The government at all
levels was ignorant or indifferent, or cagey to talk about Maj Suri.
The valiant
father proved that his son was alive, adduced a couple of letters
written by him, and proved that beyond
all the prisoners of war (PoW) who were exchanged between India and Pakistan,
there was a category of prisoners Pakistan held—as did India. The establishment
in Pakistan described them as “security prisoners”—euphimism for spies.
Maj
Suri’s story forms the prologue of Chander Suta Dogra’s “Missing in Action: The
Prisoners who did not come back”.
Parliament had mentioned 54 missing defence personnel. R S Suri’s efforts had
forced the Indian government to change his status from killed in action to
missing in action.
The
book has stories that would prove the
truth behind truth being stranger than fiction, each more fascinating than the
other.
Wing
Cdr H S Gill, India’s ace MiG 21pilot,
described in the Air Force as
“the father of MiG operations” would
be in his 80s if alive. Did he eject and was he taken prisoner? Did he not, and
was his charred body buried on the spot? Was his body not found? Or was he
indeed wearing a karha—a steel bangle –when the body was found? And there was
also a bewildering version sourced to Chuck Yeager, who headed the US Military
Assistance Advisory Group from 1971-73, and guided the Pakistan Air Force in
the 13-day war.
Air
Cdr I J S Boparai (retired), then a flight lieutenant talks about a shock he
got when he went to Iraq as an instructor from 1979-81. One of the cadets who
had returned from a training assignment in Italy relayed a story shared with
him by a US officer in a bar. “The US officer had revealed that they had an ace
IAF pilot, whom they got from Pakistan after the 1971 war, to test a MiG 21
aircraft. This was a MiG which Israel had stolen from the Iraqis, and was later
given to the US for evaluating against another aircraft. The unnamed Indian
pilot apparently did wonders as he flew the aircraft for the US. It’s very
likely that he was talking about Wg Cdr Gill because he was the only ace MiG
pilot missing since the war. I said to myself, “Beda gark”(What the hell!)
Chander’s
deeply researched book is rich in stories like those of the Suris and the
Gills.Totally in the finest traditions of journalism, she has been curious
about all the angles—all 360 degrees of them—and sought information that is
credible, from a wide range of sources including published and unknown till
date. She has discounted those that seemed wishy-washy, and appended documents. She has
humanized each case study, making the book on the 54 Indians declared missing
in action readable. And she has presented the official version put out by government
agencies on both sides, and what families have found --from unofficial sources,
reaching out really far, as far as they could, tapping every source and holding
on to hope and clutching every fragile straw and shred of information.
Her
book is as much about the families, friends, the helpful others—not
government. There is a wealth of
information people should know about these heroes, but few actually may. Between
1976 and 78, there were six exchanges of prisoners, in which 263 Indian and 458
Pakistani detainees were released. But the missing defence personnel about whom
there was significant evidence of them being in Pakistan never surfaced.
At
a time when all of India knows about Kulbhushan Jadhav, it is only fair that
other heros or martyrs get their place in history and their due in the hearts
of our people. There is a case for talks with Pakistan, and the status of these
people being the main agenda. For we
too have their men who went missing in action.
Title:
Missing In Action: The Prisoners Who Did Not Come Back
Author:
Chander Suta Dogra
Publisher:
Harper Collins
Pages
388
Price
: Rs 599
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