THE GARUD STRIKES (21 page)

Soon the rest of the battalion began to build up on Brahmanbaria. The companies began to fan out and secure the town.

‘It was pretty hilarious, the way the GOC had captured it single-handed,’ Granthi’s laugh was infectious. It came just in time and uplifted the solemn mood that had gripped the room.

Granthi’s company began to secure the area allocated to them when they came across a wounded Pakistani soldier.

‘He was rather badly wounded, and they had just abandoned him there, along with their dead,’ Granthi told me. In a flicker, the mood turned grim again. ‘He kept begging us not to leave him alone.’

The Delta Company medic gave the man first aid, whatever was available at his disposal at that time, but the Pakistani was too far gone. He died moments later.

‘He was the enemy, but for some reason we felt some relief that he had not died alone,’ Granthi said that simply, as nothing more than a statement of fact.

I sat back, dealing with the interplay of conflicting emotions that had been unleashed in me.

What is it about war? That it brings out the best in a man, just as easily as it unleashes the beast within. In one moment he is ready to kill and maim with bullet, bomb and bayonet… And then, in the very next, the same man has tears in his eyes as he remembers a fallen enemy. And he is relieved that he had at least not died alone, even though his own had abandoned him.

The Pakistanis had also left behind their dead.

‘We were aware that the dead bodies would cause disease if left unattended,’ Glucose stated. ‘But the locals were absolutely petrified of the Pakistanis and not even ready to touch their bodies. We also knew that we could not cremate the bodies since Muslims do not burn their dead.’

It took considerable persuasion on the part of the Guards’ officers before the locals finally dug a massive common grave and buried all the dead Pakistanis in it.

‘As for our own bodies, we were moving so fast and had gone so far ahead of our admin echelons that we simply had to cremate them whenever there was a lull in the battle. We would then hand over the ashes and the man’s identity tags to the Subedar Major, who was responsible to ensure they were sent back to the man’s next of kin,’ Glucose said this in a very matter of fact tone.

I empathized. It may sound callous, even cold-blooded, but that is the way of war. That, very often, is the way it ends for many soldiers: an unmarked grave, or an unceremonious cremation, in some alien land.

It was almost noon when Himmeth raced into Brahmanbaria town, at the helm of a captured Pakistani jeep.

By now Generals Sagat and Gonsalves had made up their minds to exploit the situation and pursue the Pakistanis relentlessly, without giving them any time or opportunity to settle down or regroup. They ordered Himmeth to resume advance on Ashuganj immediately.

It did not take long for Himmeth to gather his company commanders and give the orders for 4 Guards to begin its advance on Ashuganj.

The advance was to be carried out on two axes—Alpha Company moving on the right flank with squadron less two troops, and Bravo Company with the remaining two tank troops along the Brahmanbaria-Ashuganj road.

At approximately midday, Alpha Company and 5 Independent Armoured Squadron, alongwith the PT 76 tanks that had been captured from the Pakistanis, encountered the enemy at a railway junction five miles short of Ashuganj.

Paunchy, with a few other Alpha Company men, was riding atop the lead tank, which belonged to Major Shamsher Mehta, the Squadron Commander. They became aware of the Pakistani presence when the tank was fired upon. The anti-tank round luckily fell a few feet short, exploding harmlessly in the mud.

The infantrymen hurriedly dismounted, whilst Shamsher fired a couple of rounds into the grove from which they had been fired upon. Then, spraying the area with machine gun fire, he charged the grove, killing eleven Pakistanis and capturing the position.

Moving along the Brahmanbaria-Ashuganj road, Bravo Company, however, ran into heavy weather. They came under very effective fire and their advance stalled.

Himmeth coming up close behind with the rest of the battalion ordered Major Kharbanda, the Bravo Company Commander, to clear the opposition, secure the bridge, and resume advance.

Leading the assault through open paddy fields, Kharbanda was hit by an MMG burst at almost point blank range.

Guardsmen Ram Prasad and Ram Dayal Ram, both manning LMGs, saw their Company Commander fall. Kharbanda had fallen in the open and both realized that he would not survive for long. Moving forward immediately, they engaged and killed four Pakistanis, and silenced the bothersome MMG. That brought them momentary respite.

The respite would obviously be brief since the Pakistanis were showing signs of mustering for a counter-attack. Himmeth, who had also seen Kharbanda go down, alongwith several other men from Bravo Company, spotted the Pakistani movement and knew that an attack on Bravo Company was imminent.

This is what Himmeth said to Colonel Pyarelal about what happened next: ‘I knew Kharbanda was gone if we did not do anything immediately. I requested the armour officer, Lieutenant Raj Mohan to attack. The youngster was audacious. He did not hesitate even for a second and lit into the enemy with his troop. Thank God for that, otherwise we would have had to write off Kharbanda for sure. Though Raj himself was also grievously wounded during the attack, but his action saved many lives that day.

Simultaneously, guided by Daljit the spunky FAC, the Indian Air Force carried out another very effective strike on the railway station, which literally broke the back of the Pakistani defenders. The three hundred odd Pakistanis holding the town fled without offering any serious resistance. They even left their wounded behind.

Amongst those captured by Bravo Company was a Pakistani officer of 12 Frontier Force.

‘You are also from the Guards,’ the Pakistani officer told Sahni. ‘The guys who attacked us at Akhaura were also from the Brigade of Guards.’

‘We are the same ones,’ Sahni explained to him.

‘Bloody hell! You guys move fast,’ the Pakistani officer looked stunned. After a pause he added, ‘Do you know, you guys were always so close behind us that everytime we stopped for a breather, your men would turn up.’ He held up three fingers. ‘Thrice!’ Waving the fingers for emphasis, he said ‘Thrice we had to leave our tea and run. How did you manage to move so fast?’

Even I wanted to know. I asked.

‘I didn’t say anything to him, but we were able to move fast because we improvised,’ Granthi smiled. ‘Now I don’t even remember the kind of things we used to keep moving. Boats, canoes, makeshift rafts, bicycles, cycle rickshaws, horse carts, improvised sleds to pull stuff on… We used whatever we managed to commandeer.’

Just how effective they had been was clear from the fact that by now the psychological pressure on the Pakistanis was tremendous. And in the coming hours, it would continue to grow. Many more times would the Garud come knocking even before the tea finished brewing.

With that resistance cleared, 4 Guards now resumed advance on Ashuganj. However, it had caused Himmeth the loss of yet another of his company commanders. Rapidly running out of options, Himmeth now ordered Captain Sahni to take charge of Bravo Company.

The rest of the battalion was advancing behind Alpha and Bravo companies, but along the railway track.

‘Every so often we would pass pockets of Pakistani stragglers,’ Glucose commented. ‘By now they had become thoroughly demoralized and were falling back helter-skelter.’

By 1500 hours, Dharamkot, situated on the railway line Brahmanbaria-Ashuganj, had also been taken. Here again, true to form, the Pakistanis withdrew without offering a fight, but they managed to demolish the bridge before the guardsmen could reach.

The blowing of this crucial bridge across the Meghna river was to have a major impact on the conduct of operations. This was one of the major reasons for General Sagat to launch a heliborne operation soon, a game-changing operation that would put a rapid end to the war.