Lieutenant General Ali Kuli Khan

LIEUTENANT GENERAL ALI KULI KHAN Your experiences as an aviator in East Pakistan in 1971 and the 1971 War? I have partially answered this question earlier while dilating on my reasons which led to my becoming an aviator, some further details are as given. Despite the fact that the Pakistani Eastern Command by end June had cleared all rebel enclaves, the situation in general continued to deteriorate because the Indian planning had entered another phase to which we did not respond suitably. In November 1971, an Indian Army Force of approximately three infantry divisions had crossed into Pakistani territory in the Jessore-Khulna Sector and in areas north of Chittagong; this was proper undeclared war and I suspect the Indians wanted us to be provoked into a full scale war. Since we did not oblige immediately, I am sure the Indians must have been somewhat perplexed. Anyway, when Pakistan finally attacked on 3 December 1971, the Indians were able to put through their War Plans which they had painstakingly prepared and mobilized for. Unfortunately, Pakistan fought the War in East Pakistan with a troop deployment designed for Internal Security operations. Similarly, with the relative strengths loaded in India’s favour and a sympathetic local population, the writing was on the wall from the first day. It does, however, go in Pakistan’s favour that throughout the war in East Pakistan there was not a place in which the Indians/Muktis broke through the Pakistani defences. Their attempts to break through were thwarted everywhere and they were forced to go around our defences through the many gaps that existed in the thin line of Pakistani deployment. On the other hand, I regret to say that despite all the disadvantages on 16 December ‘71 there still was plenty of fight and materiel left with the Pakistani forces which with a better leadership/high command could have taken advantage of. In other words, there was no compulsion for a surrender on 16 Dec. 71.

One of the most memorable experiences of my life was the first day of the war when 130 Indian air raids came on Dhaka Airport, close to which we were also located. The PAF and Air Defence acquitted themselves excellently on this day and approximately 17-21 Indian Aircraft had been brought down. Unfortunately, we were so outnumbered that by the next night or so the Indians were able to damage the bases Airfield Runways to such an extent that no PAF aircraft could take off from Dhaka. With the complete dominance of the skies by the Indians, the only way out for the Pakistan Army Aviation was to fly at night which we did with great success. We undertook hazardous night flights to all parts of East Pakistan during which we carried out ammunition supply, casualty evacuation and liaison missions. All this was done with absolutely basic navigation aids and was truly a magnificent

achievement. I must mention an Ammunition supply mission with Maj (later Brig) Ali Jawahar to Khulna during which we ran out of fuel and barely managed to reach our own area near Narayanganj and landed in the only graveyard we had encountered in East Pakistan!! As I have mentioned earlier, the writing on the wall was pretty, obvious from Day One but, even then it came as a great shock when on the evening of 15 December our Commanding Officer was told by Eastern Command to destroy our aircraft in preparation for surrender on 16 December.

All of us protested and our Commanding Officer gave a plan for our escape to Burma taking all our aircraft and whatever else we could carry. Eastern Command agreed to this plan and directed us to start preparations and kept the responsibility of choosing passengers to themselves. When at 2 A.M. the crews reached their aircraft parked all over the cantonment they encountered total pandemonium and were barely able to take off with the greatest of difficulty. Our passengers were all women and children but in this chaos and confusion an ambulance load of nurses got left behind; apparently, they had kept sitting timidly in their ambulance hoping to be asked while the others were clambering into the helicopters. My helicopter was the second to take off but for some reason the first to arrive at Akyab Burma. We had planned to arrive at Akyab by “first light” and once we identified Akyab we flew over the sea to drop our weapons and other belongings by which we could have been identified as military personnel. I was also the first person to encounter the Burmese military guard of Akyab. Quite surprisingly, he spoke Urdu and asked me if I was a Pakistani, and whether I was armed or not?

He then asked me if I was a Muslim and upon getting a reply in the affirmative said “Assalam O Alaikum, I am also a Muslim and my name is Mustafa Kamal” In a short while seven other helicopters also arrived and soon there were approximately 170 Pakistan women and children and Army Aviators milling around the Akyab Terminal which usually received only one aircraft a day! Our Burmese hosts were most understanding and they lodged us in a Burma Oil Company Rest House. The women and children2 were flown out to Rangoon within three days and then to Pakistan within 7-10 days. We, the Aviation crews stayed in Akyab for approximately 10 days and were then asked to fly our helicopters and drop them at Meiktila, whereas we ourselves were flown to Rangoon. After approximately three weeks in Rangoon we were repatriated to Pakistan. After another month a party of Army Aviators were invited and taken back to Meiktila where they found their helicopters painted white with ‘PIA’ prominently emblazoned on them. Our crews flew these helicopters to Bangkok, from where they were shipped to Pakistan. Thus ended the saga of No. 4 Army Aviation Squadron, the only unit of Pakistan’s Eastern Command which had not surrendered. I feel highly honoured to have been a member of this elite squadron and feel greatly indebted to the Burmese authorities for their hospitality.