‘1965 war was a winnable war which we didn’t win’

Karachi
The 1965 Indo-Pakistan war was a “winnable” war, which, unfortunately, Pakistan did not win due to extremely poor planning, lack of coordination and errors committed by the Pakistani leadership, but it is an extremely wrong impression that Pakistan was completely defeated by India.
This was stated by security analyst Brig (retd) AR Siddiqi while giving a talk on ‘Learning Lessons from 1965 Indo-Pak War’ at the University of Karachi on Thursday.
The talk was organised by the Program on Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, Department of International Relations, University of Karachi, at the committee room of the Dean of Social Sciences.
“The 1965 war was a winnable war, which we did not win. And the 1971 war was an avoidable war, which we miserably lost,” Brig Siddiqi said and added that despite the extremely ill-conceived and ill-planned Operation Gibraltar and blunders in its second phase, Operation Grand Slam, the Pakistan Army defended its territory when India launched a major attack on its international borders.
Terming the change of command of Operation Grand Slam by the removal of Major General Akhtar Hussain Malik as a “major blunder” by the military command in the middle of the war, he also rejected the impression that Maj General Malik was removed for his Qadiyani or Ahmedi connection.
“During the 1965 war, there was no differentiation between Pakistanis on the basis of religion, sect and school of thought. And also at that time, Qadiyanis had not been declared non-Muslim by the state of Pakistan,” he observed.
He said the 1965 war was not a 17-day affair as told now by our army, claiming that it spanned five to six months and started from the Run of Katch and Khemkaran much earlier in 1965.
At the end of the war, it was Pakistan which had captured over 1,600 square miles of Indian territory, but it was mostly desert area in Rajasthan but Indians had captured 350 squre miles of important piece of land in Punjab.
Regarding mistakes and errors committed by the Pakistani high command, he said that assuming that India would not attack the international border on the assurances from the foreign ministry, especially ZA Bhutto, was a great mistake after an unconventional war was launched in Kashmir and followed by Operation Grand Slam by the Pakistan Army.
“The Indian attack on 6th September was not a surprise attack by the Indians, but our military high command took it as a surprise and told the nation of sudden attack by the Indian army. Nobody mentions that two days before 6th September, Indian Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri had clearly threatened of opening a war front of their own choice on international borders in response to Pakistan’s military initiatives,” he said, adding that Indians had made their designs clear after Pakistani adventures in Kashmir and Indian Punjab.
There were enormous strategic flaws in Pakistani commands’ planning of war as the GHQ was thinking differently about the situation on the ground while commanders on the ground were not even aware of the plans and objectives for which they had pitched against India, he added.
“But it was the bravery, gallantry and steadfastness of our men on ground, which saved us from a humiliating defeat although they were ill-prepared as even reservists and those on leaves were not called by their units. Soldiers on leave themselves reported to their units in civvies to go the war front and these sentiments prevented Pakistan from collapse,” he maintained.
“This war ended when both the armies and the countries exhausted their resources. But India was the first to approach the United Nations for the ceasefire,” he claimed.
Regarding the sentiments in Pakistan during the 1965 war, he said sentiments were very high during the first week of the war but later people were worried and also claimed that half of the people of Lahore had also left their homes and started migrating to other parts of the country for safety, which is quite natural and happens everywhere in the world.
Responding to a query about the Pakistan Army and its strength, he termed the army a professional force and as good as any other military force in the world or even better, and added that Pakistani army chief General Raheel Sharif was doing a “good job”.
Historian and Director of Pakistan Study Centre Dr Syed Jaffer Ahmed said that as a historian, he thought that nations should not live in the past only.
He added that universities and intelligentsia should look into the past critically and learn from mistakes.
He said the 1965 war exposed the Pakistani doctrine of defence of East Pakistan from the West Pakistan, which was entirely wrong and later in the 1971 this doctrine led to the separation of East from the West part of the country.
During the talk, other speakers also called for an official study into the 1965 war, its causes, objectives and outcome and learning from the mistakes which were committed during the war and later repeated many times.
Dean Social Sciences Dr Moonis Ahmar said Pakistanis had learnt only one thing from history and that was they had learnt nothing.
“We continued making mistakes after mistakes that led to the East Pakistan debacle, further humiliations and defeat in 1999 Kargil war,” he added.
Director Sardar Yasin Malik Professional Development Center Brig (retd) Muzaffar ul Hassan also spoke.