1971 IAF POWs near escape and hunting Stories

[Sakobav]

I came across this website by ex Marut ( twin engined fighter plane designed by HAL and german designer Dr Tank). They were true fighter jocks flying a plane which had several kinks and exemplifies their fighting spirit to make a dysfunctional plane operational and effective in a war.

I never knew about this saga where three of IAF pilots nearly escaped from Pakistan during 71. Its a well written tale and site is not easy to navigate but still has amazing information. I posted some links below.

There is another story about a funny accident prone shooting trip they had and if you read their stories it was common for them to hunt partridges near their base in utterlai and jodhpur ..

http://marutfans.wordpress.com/2010/09/ ... -bhargava/
The POW Saga – Part I: Air Cmde JL Bhargava (Retd)
The first post, on the subject,was a synopsis of events immediately following his ejection. Air Cmde ‘Brother’ Bhargava is now writing a more detailed account of the whole episode and has added interesting anecdotes and his own feelings at the time.
Besides covering his own experiences, in as much as detail as possible, he will also be covering the great escape attempted by Harisnhji, Garry Grewal and Dilip Parulkar subsequently.
On 05 Dec 71, Sqn Ldr KK Bakshi was my leader in a 2 a/c formation attacking Naya Chor Area . It was my first sortie. As the main runway of Uttarlai was not available due to enemy bombing, we had to take off from parallel taxi track. As we crossed the border heading about 300, my leader made R/T contact with FAC but I could not hear clearly since my R/T was a bit distorted. Now I know that this was an important conversation about the latest ground position of our Army or in other words “ FLOT–Forward Line of Own Troops”. Apparently our troops had moved quite a bit further west towards Pakistani territory. Had I heard this, at a later stage, this would have helped.

http://marutfans.wordpress.com/2011/02/ ... mment-1017
The POW Saga – VIII: Air Cmde JL Bhargava
In the meanwhile, Garry was trying to arrange a shared taxi – 7-8 in one taxi – to proceed to the last border village – Landi Khana. Since they were looking like foreigners, the taxi driver demanded a little extra and they were haggling over the cost of the taxi including a dedicated taxi for only three of them. Like in a small place, crowds started watching the scene and amongst them was a clerk or Tahsildar, who also understood a little English. He, somehow, suspected them to be Bengalis trying to flee and bombarded them with all sorts of questions. He then took them to the Police Station where they were subjected to a lot of questioning and a bit of a thrashing in an attempt to establish their identities. That is when Dilip realized that the game was up and it was better to do something or else they could be even killed there and then. He then got a brain-wave……..
Till then no one in Pakistan knew that Dilip, Garry and Harry had escaped from the Camp. He asked this guy to connect him on the phone to Sqn Ldr Usman, ADC to the Chief of Air Staff. Sqn Ldr Usman was our Camp Commandant upto about Mar 72 before he got posted as ADC to the CAS. We knew him very intimately and he was extremely fond of Dilip. Luckily they got through to Peshawar and Sqn Ldr Usman came on the line. Dilip at the outset wished Sqn Ldr Usman “ Sir salaam Wale Kum..Dilip here…” Sqn Ldr Usman apparently got flabbergasted to hear Dilip from a Police Station at Landi Kotal.

[Safarigent]

Absolutely toofani!
What a fantastic read!
Thanks for sharing

[Vikram]

Excellent stuff, Navi. Thanks for sharing.