Lt. gen sagat singh - the hero of the 1971 bangladesh war, who died in delhi on a wednesday in year 2001 - was a true rajput. he was renowned for his valour and chivalry. general sagat, as he was popularly known, came from a family of soldiers. his father had fought in the first world war in mesopotamia and it was he, who had encouraged his son to join the army. general sagat was born in bikaner and after his schooling, first at bikaners walter nobles school and later at dungar college, he joined the indian military academy from where he was commissioned in 1941. he fought in the second world war for five years in west asia in iraq, iran, syria and egypt, where he served as staff officer in the british army. he then pursued his graduation from the staff college in quetta (now in pakistan). meeting the general at his residence at vaishali a few years ago was a pleasure. he named the house after meghna, a bangladeshi river. it was a cold december day in 1971, when the breadth of river meghna separated us by a length of 4,000 ft from the pakistani troops, which had positioned itself on the other side. it was a very difficult situation when, i, as the corps commander, had to chalk out the strategy to attack the pakistani troops. i summoned an m-4 helicopter and asked a captain and an officer to accompany me on the mission. i wanted to have an aerial view of the situation. we were flying over the river when the pakistanis started firing at the helicopter. the bullets hit one of the co-pilots and also the captain. a bullet just missed my forehead, but luckily we were still flying. the radio contact was lost. we had to drift towards agartala and make a forced landing there. in all, there were 65 bullets that hit the helicopter, the general had then recalled. general sagat had summoned 21 iaf helicopters and para-dropped indian troops on the west bank of meghna. he planned the heliborne operation, about which the soldiers are taught even now. general sagat had sucessfully undertaken the operation with the para-droppers in the goa operation in 1961. this method of attack had caught the enemy by surprise. they were unable to retreat with the river meghna behind them. the die was cast and he sent a word to the army commander of pakistan to surrender. it led to the surrender of 90,000 pakistani troops. i was overwhelmed, when i conveyed the news to late prime minister indira gandhi. she jumped with joy, when i told her that we had done the impossible, gen sagat had said. the general was however was unhappy over being deprived of the honour of taking the surrender from gen niazi at dacca (dhaka) race course. he said, he as the corps commander was entittled to take the surrender, but gen j s aurora, who was the army commander flew with his wife from fort william, calcutta (kolkata) and took the surrender. when gen aurora introduced me to gen niazi during the surrender ceremony, gen niazi said: khuda kassam, aapne kamal kiya , remembered the general puffing a cigarette. general sagat was instrumental in defeating the portuguese forces in the goa operation as a brigadier in 1961 and prior to this, he was also involved in the hyderabad action. he fought against the chinese in the 1965 war as well. the heliborne operation of dhaka is taught world over in military academies and the name of gen sagat singh is proudly taken. timesofindia.indiatimes/india/Sagats-heliborne-operation-a-trend-setter/articleshow/2077916043.cms
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 09:11:39 +0000
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