Inside Occupied Kashmir

1947-48 KASHMIR OPERATIONS

INSIDE OCCUPIED KASHMIR - II

P N SHARMA

Previous Article Here. Both the prisoners were held by Pakistani army for nearly an year. They were finally moved to Attock fort where they received several visitors for the first time since they were captured. Here they were also reunited with other POWs of the Indian Army.

During this period I was again visited by two more correspondents and the same story of good rations and good food was repeated just before these two correspondents arrived. These two were also known to me in India. They were Mr. Britter of the 'London Times' and Mrs. Britter (the famous Margaret Parton) of the ‘New York Herald Tribune”. They had brought cigarettes, soap and some candy for me. I must say it was sweet and nice of them to have thought of me and I shall not forget the visit of these foreign correspondents. These two correspondents brought a new ray of hope to me. They told me that there were chances of my repatriation.

The IAF PoWs at their jail in Attock fort. Fg Off U D'Cruz is on the right, with PN Sharma, the war correspondent in the center. At left is Shri Michael D'Souza, a civilian, who was taken POW during the battle of Jhangar.

They told me I might be exchanged for a Brigadier Rehmatullah who was a prisoner in Srinagar, Kashmir (India). I was overjoyed to hear this news but it seemed too good to be true since Dr. Wenger of the International Red Cross had been trying for my repatriation for the past six months and had not succeeded in his several sincere and hard attempts. But all the same I expected some better luck was coming since I had started receiving money and visitors who had specially come to see me and helped me. That really raised up my morale.

Two day's later Dick and myself were asked to pack up and be ready to go early morning. We were told that we would be flown from Rawalpindi to India the next morning. We still could not believe it. So we did not care at all and just had a hearty laugh. But Thapa (Lt. Col. K.S. Thapa) and everybody else did take it to be true and they started congratulating us. We still thought it was a big joke on us, but the commander again came and we were taken out of our cage to the hospital. We were weighed there and our doctors were asked to give a medical certificate of fitness. I saw Michael there who was also told to pack up and accompany us. Now we got half sure of going home but did not know what might happen at the last moment, as the Pakistan people often changed their mind and never kept words. I had fixed up code words with Col. Thapa for writing letters. I promised to everyone of the officers and men that if I go home I shall do my very best to send them the Red Cross aid and then arrange to get them repatriated as early as possible

It was bitterly cold the next morning on December 2, 1948. We were woken up at 4 am. We were put in a 3-ton truck and once again Dick, myself and Michael started moving together. We inhaled the fresh air outside the Attock Fort. We were joyous and were awaiting to be liberated. All of a sudden the truck turned cross-wise and drove over a donkey; we nearly missed an accident. It was raining and the truck was skidding since the driver was driving it too fast. I was shivering in bitter cold because I had no woollen clothes at all. It was exactly a year and a day ago when I was captured and was taken prisoner, and was just as cold as it was on the day when I was captured. But now I was used to the cold and could not care less. We drove about 20 miles towards Rawalpindi. The rain had stopped. The road had dried up and we were driving fast and all of sudden the truck and all of us went into a ditch 20 feet below off the road. The truck crashed into pieces. Our guards and everyone else got seriously hurt. But Dick and I were both all right except that we got a few bruises and a few bumps, practically about as much that we got in our plane crash. Soon after immediately we jumped out of this crashed truck. No one was killed even the driver was all right. But the truck was very badly damaged and was unserviceable. So the Camp Commander and the accompanying Captain, who was attached to this fort as an Intelligence & Censoring Officer, together with our guards decided to walk on the road and get another transport on the road, get a train or something.

We walked about three miles early morning in freezing cold but we were now getting warmed up. We met some Army transport on the road, the Camp Commander halted the transport and we were all loaded into one truck once again and moved on. This time we got through the city of Rawalpindi and the Rawalpindi Cantonment and then to Chaklala airfield in Rawalpindi. There were strict security measures at the Chaklala airfield. All the hangars were closed and I did not see a single airman or pilot or any aircraft at all at the airfield. Our truck drove alter a proper security check by the Air Force police. We were told that the aircraft would he here 10 o’clock and we would leave.

It was here that we met Dr. Wenger of the International Red Cross. Dr. Wenger delivered me some parcels, letters and some more money that he had brought from India for me and for Dick and for Michael. But now since we were being liberated, we did not care any-thing about it and we took charge of the parcels, opened our letters which were censored once again on the spot. The parcels we did not open in order to carry them back with us. One of the parcels contained sweets and other eatables which I sent through Dr. Wenger to the Attock Fort to be given to the rest of the officer prisoners, Col. Thapa, etc., with whom I had lived. It had started raining again and I felt very chilly once again. We waited and waited till 1 o’clock and there was no sign of the plane and the weather was so bad, visibility zero, that no plane on the earth would fly or land without proper anti-fog and radar equipment.

So we had both started praying that nothing should delay or disturb our liberation that morning. We were rather apprehensive that anything might happen at the last moment; the plane may come, may not come due to bad weather and once again we might have to go back to the Attock fort. Group Captain Asghar Khan and Wing Commander Akhtar Khan of the Pakistan Air Force met us. They told us that Brig. Rehmatullah was their father and they had come to see him. And that I would be liberated in exchange of him and a few minutes later met the famous Major Aslam who had fought the Indians in Baramulla and later in various other sectors in Kashmir. Major Aslam was also the son of Brig. Rehmatullah. I saw Major Aslam using my cameras that were looted from me by the regular Pakistani border police during my capture. But here I could not say anything since I was being liberated and if I made any fuss about my cameras, they might hold me up.

The repatriation of the IAF PoWs. Mr. PN Sharma is fourth from the right. Fg Off Ulrich D'Cruz is fifth from left. Also seen in the picture is Group Captain Asghar Khan of the PAF, third from the left. Also seen in the picture is Mr. Otto Wenger, sixth from right, of the International Red Cross who arranged the transfer.

At about 2.30 p.m. I heard the drone of a plane which sounded like a C-47. Group Captain Asghar Khan went to the control tower and spoke to the plane. They told us it was an Indian Dakota, that they had brought their old man and that we were going home too. We were getting extremely joyous; our faces were red with excitement and happiness. All the chill on my body had gone away and I started feeling free the moment I saw the tricolour markings of the Indian plane that had just landed and was now approaching fast. taxiing towards us. The plane halted, the Indian crew came out, fixed the ladder and came out. The old man properly dressed with a felt hat, an overcoat, a rain coat and a stick in his hand, and three boys rushed to meet their father. Dick and I spoke to the crew of the plane. Dick knew all the pilots. We were introduced there. The Captain of the plane got signatures on a paper about the delivery of the old man to Pakistan and signed for us. We got into the Indian plane and took off and as soon as we took off, I cannot explain how happy I felt in the Indian plane and flying once again in the free air towards home.

We have no idea as what happened to Mr. P N Sharma after he published his book. We look forward to any visitor giving us more information on him. Flying Officer Ulrich D'Cruz after his repatriation was awarded the Ashok Chakra Class II (later known as Kirti Chakra) in 1950 for his fortitude and resistance against the torture and abuse shown during his period of incarceration by the Pakistani irregulars. D'Cruz migrated to Australia after retirement. He passed away recently in April 1999.

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