12 Days To Dacca (Hardcover)

TRANSITION
Mid-June heralded the arrival of the monsoon in Nagaland. June-July was relatively a low profile period in the counterinsurgency operations. I decided to exercise my option for annual leave and join my family, who were staying in Meerut Cantonment. In early August, I visited Delhi with my wife; and we were invited to lunch by Lt. Gen. Harprasad, the Vice-chief of the Army staff. During our stay at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, where he was the commandant, Mrs. Shobha Harprasad and my wife Avtar Kler had established a very good rapport with each other. We were like family friends. During the course of the meal, he wondered how I had not been recalled, in view of the impending operation being planned for East Pakistan. Till that date, I was completely oblivious of any such action. It was the first time that I had heard of it.
My leave came to an end, and I boarded the eastern courier aircraft at Delhi for the flight to Gauhati. On board the AN12, in the third week of August, there was an air of expectancy about the forth-coming operation in the eastern sector. When the plane landed at Bagdogra in West Bengal and I was alighting, an aide of Lt. Gen. JS Aurora asked me to accompany him. I met with the Army Commander at the VIP lounge. During the course of the conversation, he informed me that 8 Mountain Division which had six brigades, would have to shed three brigades when it would move out for operations. Of the three, one would stay in Nagaland, one would go to 101 Communication Zone (101 Com. Zone) based at Shillong and the third one to 33 Corps, with its Headquarters at Siliguri. He had a difficult task of allocating a brigade to operate under the command of Maj.