Maj.
Gen. Fazal Muqeem Khan, author of book "Pakistan's Crisis of Leadership"
“The major reason for our defeat are
Sikhs. We are simply unable to do anything before them despite our best
efforts. They are very daring people and are fond of martyrdom. They fight
courageously and are capable of defeating an army much bigger than them.”
On 3rd December 1971 we fiercely and
vigorously attacked the Indian army with infantry brigade near Hussainiwala
border. This brigade included Pakistan army’s Punjab regiment together with
the Baloch Regiment. Within minutes we pushed the Indian army quite far
back.
Their defence posts fell under our
control. The Indian army was retreating back very fast and the Pakistani
army was going forward with great speed.
Our army reached near Kasure-Hind
post (Kasure). There was small segment of Indian
army appointed to defend that post and their soldiers belonged to the Sikh
Regiment. A few number of the Sikh Regiment stopped our way forward like
aniron wall. They greeted us with the ovation (Slogan) of 'Bole-so-Nihal’
and attacked us like bloodthirsty, hungry lions and hawks. All these
soldiers were Sikhs.
There was even a dreadful hand-to-hand
battle. The sky filled with roars of ‘Yaa Ali and Sat Sri Akal’.
Even in this hand-to-hand fighting the
Sikhs fought so bravely that all our desires, aspirations and dreams were
shattered.
In this war Lt. Col. Gulab Hussain was
killed. With him Maj. Mohammed Zaeef and Capt. Arif Alim also died. It was
difficult to count the number of soldiers who got killed. Wewere astonished
to see the courage of those, handful of Sikh soldiers. When we seized the
possession of the three-story defensepost of concrete, the Sikh soldiers
went onto the roof and kept on persistently opposing us. The whole night
they kept on showering fireson us and continued shouting the loud ovation of
‘Sat Sri Akal’.These Sikh soldiers kept on the encounter till next day. Next
day the Pakistani tanks surrounded this post and
bombed it with guns.
Those, handful of Sikhs got martyred in
this encounter while resisting us, but other Sikh soldiers then destroyed
our tanks with the help of their artillery. Fighting with great bravery they
kept on marching forward and thus our army lost its foothold.
Alas! A handful of Sikhs converted our
great victory into big defeat and shattered our confidence and courage.
The same thing happened with us in Dhaka,
Bangladesh. In the battle of Jassur, the Singhs opposed the Pakistan
army so fiercely that our backbone and our foothold were lost. This
became the main important reason of our defeat; and Sikhs 'strength, safety
and honor of the country, became the sole cause of their victory.