Pak Radios claim of India starting 1965 war falls flat

In a blatant twist of historical facts, Pakistan Radio has been airing in Punjabi Darbar programme allegation that India imposed the 1965 War on Pakistan.

Amritsar, Sept 21 : In a blatant twist of historical facts, Pakistan Radio has been airing in 'Punjabi Darbar' programme allegation that India 'imposed' the 1965 War on Pakistan.

The radio broadcast made from Lahore can be easily heard in areas of Punjab along the international border, and is aimed at misleading people.

Pakistan's launching of Operation Gibraltar, in early 1965, by infiltrating its disguised soldiers into the Indian part of Kashmir in a bid to capture the rest of the State is a well known fact, which have been also confirmed by classified documents of the US, presently made available to public.

The operation was launched by Pakistan in August 1965, after it got some partial success in the Rann of Kutch earlier, that led them to believe that Indian army was not prepared for a blitzkrieg- a fast and furious attack in Punjab cutting off the communication to Jammu and Kashmir.

The main aim of the Operation Gibraltar was to infiltrate the Pakistan Army soldiers and guerrillas, disguised as locals, into Kashmir with the intention of fomenting an insurgency among Kashmiri.

However, Pakistan's strategy failed as the locals did not respond to it and the infiltrators were soon detected.

The former editor of Defence Journal of Pakistan, A H Amin writes, "Civilians at the (Pakistan's) foreign ministry assessed that the Indians could be knocked out at the strategic level."

"The Pakistani offensive plan -a thrust against Indian line of communication at Akhnur in case of a limited war in Kashmir and against Indian line of communication between Indian Corps holding Ravi-Sutlej Corridor at Jandiala Guru on Amritsar-Jullundhur road in case of an all out war was brilliant in conception," he adds.

But Pakistan's every effort went awry, including its final Operation codenamed Grand Slam.

Brigadier M L Chadha, who fought the 1965 War and was posted in Kashmir during the war, has refuted Pakistan Radio's claims.

"Pakistan infiltrated into India through Kashmir (Operation Gibraltar) and crossed 'Ichogil' canal with armaments brought from Chinese," he said.

The War that began in August lasted for five weeks after a UN mandated ceasefire.

ANI