These were the days of the war of 71. Thirty-six lights in which I was the captain were part of the Lahore corps. A battery of the unit was engaged in the conservation of Wazirabad bridge. The same bridge where trenches had to be dug to stop the advance of the TLP. A battery was stationed around the Ravi Bridge.
The third on Solomon's hadorx. The fourth is the battery in which the BRB Canal and the Ravi River are mixed with a headworks called siphon. The siphon is because the BRB canal has been passed under the River Ravi at this point. The fourth battery was there for us. During the war, it was felt necessary that there should be a mobile column of aircraft-less guns that could go from place to place if needed. Eight guns were removed from our battery and their command was handed over to me.If there was an attack by aircraft from the other side and damage to a bridge or railway line, our mobile column would have been sent there.
One day I was called to the Core Headquarters and it was said that the Indian territory was being prepared to be attacked by crossing the Sutlej River near Sulaimanki headworks. There will be a need for anti-aircraft guns from where the attack is to take place. We walked there. Traveled all night in an open jeep and reached the place somewhere in the morning. There were reports that the attack scheme was left. The order was to go to Patuki.
A small railway line bridge was destroyed and repaired by indian aircraft. Same full-night trip, open jeep and December bitter chill. Approached the bridge in the morning. Seeing our arrival, people from some nearby villages started coming. On the heads they carried three or four hot milk muttons and also brought cake juice. We thanked them for their arrival because our ration had been lost by then due to continuous travel. Seeing my officers, paratha and omelets were prepared for me.Most of the day we stayed there, it was probably the last day of the war. Dhaka was occupied by the Indian Army. It was there that I heard General Yahya's speech near the railway bridge in which he expressed his determination in a semi-conscious voice that the war had been defeated in Go Dhaka and we would continue to fight.
When the bridge work was over, it was ordered that it was now being prepared that the attack on Indian territory would take place by crossing the Ravi River north of Lahore. Our guns were to be deployed where the armies were to cross the River Ravi. The situation was strange. On the one hand, there is news that the eastern front has been defeated and then the order that the attack is being prepared. Our convoy of guns went on again. On the way, there will be a ceasefire at 10 p.m. I called the unit to say how the attack was going on. And what does our convoy mean to go there, if not an attack? The answer was to follow the order which is received. And Rakhat made a journey, and reached this place in the dark. Before the ceasefire, there was a lot of shelling from both sides. Several days later, I slept comfortably that night.
The order is to go to The Walton Airport in Mullah in the morning, the same airport that is now preparing for destruction.The rest of the unit was at its hideouts, in the only one and my convoy of guns was near Lahore. A couple of days of rest and then it would have been like we would have gone to Lahore in the evening. Then there was a blackout, that is, darkness. If the vehicles were also running, with dim lights. The unit officers were all ahead, commanding officer Lt Col Kakar was also far ahead. We were our kings, not asking anyone or saying anything to anyone. The memory of the one winter that passed is still remembered, and the heart is filled with joy. A number of friendships were made with some people.
We had possession of a room at Walton Airport. I have written once before that one of our Air Force officers lived together. We were very good human beings, we became senior but we became friends with frankness. Where did we stop doing our tricks and our Air Force colleagues would not laugh at them?That was the peak of McLeod Road at lahore hotel. When the elders came, they would stay in the flats. The hideout of white robes from outside districts would have been the Lahore hotel. What was the beauty that was not available in Lahore at that time? When I mention these things to today's youth, their eyes are wide open and they ask, "Did this really happen?" In the evening, a few hosts stood in front of the loose Lahore Hotel. In today's language, they will probably be called the Tourist Guide. If your taxi stopped, one of the hosts would come closer and ask very carefully, "What is the desire?" The hosts would sit in the front seat and then tell the way that they had to turn from here and go straight from here. In those days, Samanabad also used to live. He had a charm of his own. Let us also tell you that everything used to be more civilized than it is today.
A settled conversation is not a loud voice, not even a high-end calculation. And it was time, it had its own principles. However, because of these wanderings of Syria, we became friends with Shamshad. I mean not to be taken wrong, Shamshad can be the name of both men and women. Shamshad's style was his own. There would be a knock at the door of the room late at night, and then he would wake up to think of the small room as it was. It may be recalled that walton airport was considered to be far from the city at that time i.e. the arrival of the visitor would have been through the dark.
Then on an ominous day we were called to the border and our fascinating days ended. To this day we have gone to the border and left no address to anyone. In the absence, our friends came a couple of times and returned disappointed. Then what was to happen was that the thread of fellowship broke, and no one knew where our friend of these sad evenings had been lost. Our lives have been full of armans.
Even today, when you remember something, you feel pain in the church, but the memory of this arman associated with these sad evenings in all the armans still haunts the heart. Forgot so much, they could not forget these memories.
Thanks for your kind visits!
Is that a story? Or real memories?