“The Indian Air Force battered Pakistani tanks in their already-botched ground offensive at Longewala in the 1971 war, primarily because it was not supported by their own air force.

The Pakistani army helped and trained Mizo insurgents in East Pakistan led by Laldenga.

An unsuccessful coup attempt was made to overthrow President Yahya Khan, who handed over power to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto soon thereafter.”

These are some snapshots from a book authored by a former Pakistani Brigadier, who had arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from his Dhanmondi residence in Dhaka on March 25, 1971.

The book also delves into graphic details of the situation prevailing in then East Pakistan, which finally led to the surrender of Pakistan Army to the Indians in 1971.

The Way It Was - Inside the Pakistan Army by Brigadier (Retd) Zahir Alam Khan has been dubbed by its Indian publisher Natraj as “the first honest and no-holds-barred autobiography of a soldier in the Pakistan Army”.

Longewala blues

Khan, a trained commando, led the forces into Longewala. Under Operation Labbaik, they were to have taken over Longewala, Ramgarh and Ghotaru and then proceeded on to capture Jaisalmer.

However, the author said that as there was no support for the Pakistani troops from their own air force, the Indian Air Force’s ‘Hawker Hunters’ had a field day bombing Pakistani tank formations as these were rendered sitting ducks. “The IAF which appeared a little after seven o’clock, flying without any opposition from the Pakistan Air Force, had four Hawker Hunters...Anything that moved was immediately attacked, otherwise the Hunters circled for their endurance and before returning to their base, attacked the tanks that had been located,” says the book. On Mizo insurgency, Khan says, “They were being supplied food by the Government of Pakistan just across the border from Assam.”