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| LOOKING BACK | | When Defence Minister ignored Pak `Op Gulmarg’ plans to annex J&K | |
SANT KUMAR SHARMA
Jammu, Oct 24: In August 1947, Major Onkar Singh Kalkat was serving as Brigade Major at Bannu Frontier Brigade Group headquarter, under Brigadier C P Murray. On August 20, Major Kalkat received a letter from the Commander in Chief of Pakistan Army marked Personal/Top Secret.
The C-in-C has addressed the letter to Brigadier Murray but he was on a tour and visiting Mirali outpost. Without wasting any time, Major Kalkat opened the letter so that he could communicate its contents to his commander.
As luck would have it, the letter contained details of `Operation Gulmarg’, the operation Pakistan had planned for annexing the state of Jammu & Kashmir. The plans to annex J&K, forcibly, had thus been prepared by the Pakistani commanders within a week of the nation coming into being.
Without losing any time, Major Kalkat called up Brigadier Murray to inform him about the contents of the letter. The Brigadier told Major Kalkat to keep the secret and not divulge anything to anybody. For good measure, the British officer cautioned Major Kalkat that if he said anything about the letter to anybody, he would not be allowed to leave Pakistan alive.
Under the peculiar circumstances prevailing then, Major Kalkat kept mum but some Pakistan Army officers sensed that he (Major Kalkat) knew about `Operation Gumarg’. He was then put under virtual house arrest at his residence.
Almost two months later, Major Kalkat made a daring escape and reached Ambala on October 18. Wanting to reach Delhi quickly, he boarded a goods train and met Defence Minister Sardar Baldev Singh, Brigadier Kalwant Singh and a couple of other senior Army officers the next day.
He told them about Pakistan’s `Operation Gulmarg’ plans but they ignored his pleas, and inputs. At that time, he had lost contact with his family which used to live in Mianwali (then in Pakistan) and went looking for them.
Fortunately for him, his family had arrived in India with the help of the Deputy Commissioner of Mianwali. On October 22, the Pakistan Army put its plans into action and launched `Operation Gulmarg’.
When the marauders launched frontal attacks on weak outposts manned by J&K forces, the Indian authorities realized how gravely wrong they had been in ignoring Major Kalkat’s invaluable inputs. They started looking for him desperately but he could be traced in Amritsar only two days later, on October 24, 1947.
He was immediately taken to Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who was extremely angry and shouted at the Defence Minister and senior Army officers who had ignored Major Kalkat’s inputs.
Major Kalkat explained the according to `Operation Gulmarg’ plans, every Pathan tribe was required to enlist at least one Lashkar of 1,000 tribesmen. Specific and clear-cut instructions for their recruitment were issued to the district officials.
After enlistment, these Lashkars were based at Bannu, Wana, Peshawar, Kohat, Thal and Nowshera. The Brigade Commanders at these places provided arms and ammunitions to these elements. Under `Operation Gulmarg’, each tribal Lashkar was also to be provided a Major, a Captain, and 10 Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) of the regular Pakistan Army.
The role of the Major was to command the Lashkar and act as `Adviser’ to the tribal Malik (commander). The Pakistani regulars were also asked to be Pathans, and dress and live exactly like the other Pathans in the Lashkar.
Major Kalkat had stumbled on these facts pertaining to `Operation Gulmarg’, the Pakistani plans to annex Kashmir forcibly in August 1947. However, even in October when he could manage to reach Delhi, the authorities there had dismissed his vital inputs.
The officer had met the Defence Minister Baldev Singh on October 19 and shared his inputs but these were dismissed out of hand, without anyone bothering to believe them. Three days later, on October 22, the Pakistan Army launched the `Operation Gulmarg’ as planned.
Precious time was lost in locating him and it was only after Major Kalkat met Prime Minister Nehru on October 24 that things started moving. It was only then that the Indian establishment realized the gravity of the situation.
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