We have lost a great friend and ardent supporter on the international scenes with the passing away of Mr Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada. His interest in Pakistan was unflagging from his young Canadian journalist days till his long successful Prime Ministerial tenure. Interestingly starting his association on Pakistan’s establishment by his courageous participation in the little known adventurous sojourn with the East Punjab’s Muslim refugees plight and exodus to Pakistan in September ‘47: he marched with them; sharing their miseries and tribulations from their refugee camps right upto Pakistan.

SERVING with my Regiment with the Punjab Boundary Force during the partition, responsible for law and order and move of refugees, we escorted the first fifty miles long convoy of the refugees. Starting from Ludhiana-Jullunder a young foreigner in his mid-twenties briskly walking with them was most visible, later learning he was a Canadian journalist, reporting the great human holocaust. Simply dressed carrying a haversack dexterously moved with the column helping the falling old men and women. These marches were tragic stories of extreme human sufferings and sacrifices; the worst sufferers were old men, women and young siblings. Halfway before Amritsar, sharing last dregs of my thermos tea, as the miserable cavalcade crawled observed with trepidations the Dakota aircraft with Lord Mountbatten, Quaid and Nehru circling over us witnessing for the first time the sad aftermath of the Great Divide!

AFTER many days of the march reached the Pakistan border, greatly relieved to see the Pak flag flying on a long bamboo pole at Wagah identified by a few policemen sitting besides a water-Sabeel and food Degs manned by local villagers. The sight of our people in tatters, exhausted and bedraggled kissing the EI Dorado, the Pak soil with tears or gratefulness were unforgetful! So was the incongruous young Canadian journalist nearly famished covered in sweat and dust! The Police officer immediately attended to the courageous foreigner, welcoming him with the solitary rickety chair and refreshing cold water. The Police officer (who later rose to the top intelligence post) gave him a glass of milk, the youngman tried to gulp it all at once with near disastrous results! Advised to sip slowly he quickly revived profusely thanked the officer and was subsequently driven to Lahore. Who could imagine we were treating the future Canadian PM!

LATER Mr Trudeau became a frequent visitor to Pakistan never forgetting his old acquaintances. During his long premiership sponsored many cultural, social and economic assistance programmes today nurturing into substantial Canadian Development Assistance projects. He shall always be remembered for his modest simple life style, sympathy for the under developed, courage, political vision and grasp of international relations with far reaching special interests in our young country.

Dear Sir,

I had been reading with interest Gp Capt. Hali’s article in Defence Journal September 2000 issue, in which he had written an article on the Pathankot raid. While giving the Indian point of view he had quoted from my website.

“As evening approached, Pathankot Airbase received an urgent phone call from Squadron Leader Dandapani at Amritsar Air Defence Centre. He spoke to Wing Commander Kuriyan and informed him that several Sabres had been observed taking off and then go ‘Off the Scope’ as they all went below the radar horizon. This had all the tell-tale signs of an incoming raid. Kuriyan informed Suri about the suspicions of a raid and asked for permission to scramble the CAP (Combat Air Patrol). (This is where the Pathankot Base Commander made a vital mistake for which IAF paid dearly) Suri refused to order the CAP to go off and ordered Kuriyan to go off the shift. “2”

It’s not the intention to blame Gp Capt. Suri or another individual. I thought I would give readers a better picture on what happened just before the Pathankot raid took place. The above excerpt was a result of an interview I had done with Wg Cdr Kuriyan sometime last year. I had interacted with quite a few other officers from Pathankot, and the verdict on who was to blame on the Indian side is as confusing as it gets.

Wg Cdr Dandapani, the ADC Officer (in an interview this year) confirms the discussion with Kuriyan regarding the warning he had given, but also holds Kuriyan responsible for not scrambling the CAP. Dandapani insists that Kuriyan did not heed his warning. Kuriyan insists that he took the warning seriously but Suri vetoed him. Dandapani confirms that he wanted to speak to Suri first, but on not locating him, spoke to Kuriyan. Ofcourse W/C Dandapani cannot vouch for what happened after the telecon, as it is solely Kuriyan’s word. (Gp Capt R Suri is since then deceased). We may have no way of knowing what exactly happened.

The Indian Official history of the 1965 War gives an even more confusing (and inaccurate) twist to the story when it says the following in a footnote.

“A wrong decision by Wg Cdr Kuriyan, the then OC Flying, Pathankot to recall the airborne Gnats even though he had 10 min impending warning of the attack resulted in the losses-Air Chief Marshal Arjan Singh interview of 6 Aug 1987”

The only Gnats that were airborne at that time were a couple returning from an escort strike. Both the Gnats (flown by Fg Off Janak Kapur and Fg Off M R Murdeshwar) were at the end of their fuel reserves. Both the pilots had no fuel and would certainly have run out of it if they had got involved in the aircombat. Kuriyan certainly did not inform them, and informing them may not have given them any results. (As they could not have engaged the Sabres). Ultimately only one aircraft was airborne at that time. Fg Off Mac Mohan (Now a senior Air Marshal with Air HQ) with barely 60 hours or so of flying experience in a Mystere. And he was wisely directed out of the combat area by a senior Squadron Commander in the ATC.

Ultimately we return to the same question. Who was to blame? Did Suri order Kuriyan to go off the dutyroster? Did Kuriyan fail to heed Dandapani’s warning and went home straight? We really don’t know what exactly happened.

For the Official record, Kuriyan was held responsible and relieved of his post after the war. But quite a good number of officers defend Kuriyan’s viewpoint. As they say, the truth is out there.

Regards