India's Secret War: BSF and Nine Months to the Birth of Bangladesh by Ushinor Majumdar

Author:Ushinor Majumdar [Majumdar, Ushinor]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: War, India, BSF, Non-fiction
ISBN: 9780143460268
Google: YwoF0AEACAAJ
Publisher: Vibhatsu
Published: 2023-10-22T18:30:00+00:00

Notes

32. Kawser Mahmud, video interview of Belal Mohammad.

14

Lt Gen. Aurora’s Monsoon Message

After Subhapur fell, the Pakistan Army was quick to reorganize its defences and restart the supply route from Chittagong. They brought in their engineers and repaired the road bridge first and then the railway bridge. It re-established communication with Chittagong.

In the meantime, the Pakistanis shifted to using riverine routes to cart their supplies to Dacca. It took the Pakistan Army engineers around two weeks, working day and night, to repair the bridge and make it operational. The military convoys then started using the trunk road, which passed very close to both the Srinagar and Am-lighat BOPs.

The BSF’s firepower was limited to mortars and machine guns, which could not do much damage to the convoys from that distance. At first, Asstt Comdt Ghosh used these. He positioned each of his two MMGs on either side of the camp. They would point at two different ends of the stretch of the trunk road visible from the camp. If the Pakistan Army convoy was travelling from south to north, he would first open fire from the one at the north to make the head of the convoy halt. Then he would fire from the south side at the rear end of the convoy. This would create confusion. He would then start the mortar fire at the entire convoy. After a few vehicles had been damaged, the BSF would stop the fire. The Pakistani soldiers would also stop their firing soon after the BSF withdrew their fire. This light attack irritated the Pakistanis but did not do any great damage.

On 1 July 1971, Lt Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, chief of the Indian Army’s Eastern Command, was in Tripura with divisional commander Maj. Gen. B.F. Gonsalves and one of the latter’s commandants, Colonel Sharma. Lt Gen. Aurora visited the Srinagar BOP, and Asstt Comdt Ghosh showed him around.

‘You are also Ghosh, like your commandant. Can I call you PK?’ Lt Gen Aurora asked.

The guard commander interrupted the briefing and said that a Pakistan Army convoy was passing. As company commander, Asstt Comdt Ghosh would order the engagement using machine guns.

‘PK, can I have a look?’ Lt Gen. Aurora asked.

‘Of course, sir.’

Lt Gen. Aurora asked the major general and the colonel to stay back, and accompanied Asstt Comdt Ghosh to a bunker up front. He was surprised to see the Pakistan Army passing so close by.

‘PK, what are they carrying?’

‘Sir, these are all supplies from the Chittagong port—arms, ammunitions and rations.’

‘The arms and ammunitions are to be used against whom?’

‘Sir, against the Indian forces,’ replied Asstt Comdt Ghosh.

‘So, why are you allowing them to pass while they carry bullets meant for our soldiers?’

‘Sir, I have one company under my command and a company of Mukti Bahini guerrilla fighters. I do not have the firepower or manpower to stop them,’ Asstt Comdt Ghosh said in a matter-of-fact tone. ‘I do not have any artillery. If I unleash a heavy attack on them, they will return the next day with tanks.

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