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Heavy fighting forces selective withdrawals.
"Chamb Hussainwala and Suliemanke areas lost to the enemy".

Dec 06, Western Sector: The fighting on the ground in the Western Sector has not entirely gone the Army's way in the past three days. Even though the Army had made significant gains and had repulsed attacks in many sectors, the Pakistani plans to launch an offensive on the evening of December 3rd bought limited sucesses. Army spokesman has admitted that the army had to undertake certain "tactical withdrawals" to strenghten its defences, but dismissed suggestions that these were major reversals.

Chamb Sector: The town of Chamb in Jammu and Kashmir today was abandoned after Indian troops have evacuated the positions today night. Earlier in the day the enemy had put in repeated attacks on Chamb. The positions of Ghogi, Barsala and Mandiala South were lost during the day's fighting. Since this put the troops at Chamb at a great risk, the Indian Commander ordered the troops in Chamb to fall back. As we go to print, news has come in that the Bridge over the Mandiala river has been blown up by Indian troops to prevent the Pakistani forces from coming over.

It may be recalled that in 1965, Pakistan made some great advances in this sector. In a matter of three days, the Pakistani forces had almost captured Akhnur before being thwarted by Indian forces. This time around the advance has been held at Mandiala itself. Indian Troops giving a fierce resistance to the enemy forces.

Loss of Hussainiwala :

The Hussainiwala enclave is across the Sutlej River astride the Ferozepur-Kasur road.

It is a 20 Acre strip covering the canal headworks. The enclave also has a historical significance. It houses the memorial to Shaheed Bhagat Singh.

Pakistani troops attacked the enclave at last light on 3rd December and had overwhelmed the Indian troops from the 15 Punjab. The bridge across the Sutlej was destroyed by our engineer troops to prevent the enemy from crossing it.

The fighting raged on till the morning of 4th, when some troops were still holding out from the last floor of the Kaiser-e-Hind Memorial. As the position became precarious, the remaining troops were ordered to withdraw from the enclave on the night of Dec 4th. Our losses were 99 killed and missing. A Centurion tank was also lost during the withdrawal.

Fazilka Sector:

In the Fazilka sector, the Suleimanke headworks bordering Pakistan was attacked on the night of December 3. Indian troops had to withdraw in the face of heavy shelling and continous attacks by enemy troops. A Counter attack by 4 Jat on the night of Dec 4 failed with 22 of our troops either killed or missing.

The Battallion bravely attempted another attack on a post called Beriwala. The assault was nearly sucessful and Indian troops overran the pakistani forward troops, but heavy casualities forced a withdrawal. Maj Narayan Singh, the company commander leading the attack, fell during close hand-to-hand combat in this battle. 19 of our troops were either killed or Missing. Four of our tanks are also reported to have been lost.

Though the loss of both these enclaves are a setback, Army officers have been quick to point it out that these were local actions limited to small areas which have now been confined. There is no need for panic because the attacks have now bogged down after their momentum was worn out.

Indian Gains

However to redress the balance on the Indian side, there were some bright points in the fighting on the western sector. Besides the already narrated encounter at Dera Baba Nanak, Indian troops have managed to make gains in other sectors.

Poonch Sector: The enemy troops today attempted an attack yesterday to take Shahpur and Gutrian. Indian forces beat back the attacks. The enemy Commanding Officer and a Medical officer were reported killed in the attack.

Chickens Neck: 26 Inf Division under Maj Gen Zoru Bakshi MVC VrC have launched an offensive to take the Chicken Neck Saelient in the Akhnur sector. Certain areas have already been taken by advancing Indian troops under Brigadier Mohinder Singh.

It was also reported that some 150 troops from an East Bengal Regiment crossed over to Indian lines to surrender in the Amritsar sector.