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Plans To Liberate East-Pak Began In 1965, Says Vice Admiral Chawla

Vice Admiral Anil Kumar Chawla on Saturday said the thinking to separate East Pakistan from the West actively started after the 1965 Indo-Pak war with a principal reason to stop support of Pakistan’s ISI to insurgencies in the north-east of India. East Pakistan was separated from the West after the 1971 Indo-Pak war, giving birth to a new nation — Bangladesh.

“It was mentioned that the war did not really start in December (1971). Actually, if you really go back into the literature and read, the thinking started actively after the 1965 war on how to separate East Pakistan from West Pakistan,” said Chawla, who is the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command. Speaking at the Indian Air Force Conclave n the 1971 Indo-Pak war, he said the principal reason was the interference of Pakistani ISI in the insurgencies in the north-east, particularly the arming and training of the Naga rebels.

“It (supporting insurgency) was actually happening in the Chittagong hill tracts, which is from where we took a leaf out, when we sort of trained the Mukti Bahini, so the thinking started then. But India was very weak then. If you recollect, the Congress party had split, Indira Gandhi had barely managed to hold on to become the PM and was not expected to last very long,” he added. The Vice Admiral was speaking at the IAF conclave to commemorate 50-years of victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war that gave birth to Bangladesh as a country, which is being celebrated this year as ‘Swarnim Vijay Varsh’.

Noting that the thought processed from 1965 onwards, he said, “It was at a very nascent stage of course, but now documents clearly bring out that after January 30, 1971 hijacking of an Indian Airlines aircraft to Lahore by Kashmiri separatists, the Indian government actually stopped overflight facilities and this prevented Pakistan re-arming in East Pakistan, and they had to route through Colombo, making it difficult and expensive.”

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PTI

Kartik Sud

I am working as a News Author With the DefenceXP network, Observing LOC and LAC

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