The Siege of Poonch and Brigadier Pritam Singh

In 1947, the Pakistan army along with raiders had invaded the state of Jammu and Kashmir. They overran the better part of it and had reached Baramulla in the valley when the first batch of Indian troops ( Battalion HQ and two companies of 1 Sikh ) landed at the Srinagar airfield and saved the airfield from falling into enemy hands.

Lt Colonel Pritam Singh, MC took command of1 Para Kumaon Regiment (whose British commanding officer could not take part in this war) at 10p.m. at Palam and next morning at 5a.m. took off for Srinagar. Pritam took part in the Battle of Shalatang, where the Pakistan army suffered defeat and its ambition to occupy Kashmir valley came to an end. Outside the Valley, the Pakistan army and raiders had captured most of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Prime Minister of India insisted that the town of Poonch must not be allowed to fall into enemy hands. The then Commander -in-Chief was of the view that it would not be possible to defend Poonch. When Nehru came to Jammu he prevailed upon the Corps Commander Lt General Russell, in that Poonch must be defended. While Russel was convinced that it would not be possible to hold on to Poonch, he took these instructions from the PM but told him that they would need a lot of luck to do so. Neither the Commander-in-Chief nor the Corps Commander knew that there was with them a man who would make the impossible possible.

To defend Poonch a brigade column was despatched from Uri towards Poonch. This column was intercepted by the enemy and cut into two parts. Pritam with half his battalion (two companies- 241 personnel) was cut off from the rest of the brigade. He decided to carry on to Poonch, while the remaining part of the brigade returned to Uri. In Poonch there were 1400 soldiers of state forces who had only their rifles and ammunition down to a few rounds each. They were planning to sneak out of Poonch.

There were forty thousand refugees besides the ten thousand population of the town. The surrounding high features were held by the enemy and between the enemy and the defender there was no moat or fort wall nor any minefield. The enemy was all set to descend on Poonch. The dice was heavily loaded against the defender. The food stocks were barely sufficient for ten days. Pritam set about organising defences with conspicuous daring and consummate skill. He raised two battalions by enrolling youth present in Poonch and these two newly formed units played an important role in the defence of Poonch. After the war these two units became part of J&K Rifle’s group.

To meet the requirement of food surrounding villages were raided to collect grain and animals. For this, the troops had to break through the enemy cordon where casualties were suffered and equally inflicted on the enemy. In that year-long siege a total of 60000/ maunds of grain was collected in this manner.

Sometime later when the airfield was extended and Dakota aircraft could land, the rest of his battalion and some more troops were inducted.

Under such inordinately difficult conditions Pritam held on to Poonch for one long year before the rest of the Indian army linked up with Poonch.

Subsequently Brigadier Pritam Singh was court martialled and dismissed from service and his Independence Day medal taken away. What could not be taken from him was the Military Cross won during the second World War.

The siege of Poonch, the enemy's desperate attempts to break through the defences and the tenacious stand of the defender, is unique in many ways and there is no parallel to it in all of military history. The Indian Army buried this epic battle for good, which otherwise would have been the subject of study in military schools the world over.

Before delving into the details of the court martial it is important to know what all happened at Poonch during that year-long siege which subsequently had a bearing on the charges effected in this court martial

To extend the airfield for Dakota aircraft to land, a graveyard had to be levelled. To feed the population at Poonch, the troops would break through the enemy cordon and raid the surrounding villages to collect food grains.

The occupants of these villages were all Muslims. When Pritam arrived in Poonch, the small Muslim population of the town would not venture out of their homes for fear of being attacked by refugees. Within one week of the arrival of Pritam they could freely move around.

When a Muslim electrician was attacked by refugees, Pritam himself had rushed forward to save him. From time to time, enemy soldiers were captured and sent back to enemy lines, because in Poonch there was no food to spare. In all of military history, there is no known action of this type.

Even so there were 19 charges that maintained that Pritam killed Muslims and ordered his Brigade Major to do the same.. I tracked down his Brigade Major in Defence Colony in New Delhi. He said that no Muslim was killed in Poonch town and whatever prisoners of War ( POW ) that were captured over that period of one year were sent back to enemy lines. Clearly there was internal army politics at the time that also influenced the framing of the false charges against Pritam.

Sheikh Abdullah, the then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir had gone to Poonch in an aircraft and while addressing the refugees he made some provocative remarks. This despite the fact that these refugees had been driven out of their homes, their kith and kin had been killed and some were wounded. Swords were drawn and they attacked the Chief Minister. The army intervened to protect him. He was hurriedly flown out of Poonch. This ignominious departure was to haunt him for a long time.

A batch of ten prisoners being sent back to enemy lines were escorted by the Police when they were attacked by refugees. Once Pritam came to know of this, he rushed to their location only to find that they had already been killed. One survivor, badly wounded and hiding in bushes, was picked up by him and taken to hospital. It is then that he had given a taste of his cane to policemen escorting this batch of enemy soldiers.

Pritam had removed the wazir (state minister) who was administering the town and placed an army officer in his place. This wazir was suspected of passing information to the enemy. When the Maharaja of Poonch came with an IAF Dakota to collect his valuables from the palace, the wazir refused to part with the jewel studded sword and gold threaded Choga (gown) collected by him from the palace. Pritam had forced him to part with these two items. The Maharaja also told Pritam to give a gift of a carpet from the palace to the Indian Air Force for making a Dakota available to him.

This carpet was given to 1 Para Kumaon, as it was being de-inducted from Poonch, to be handed over to the GLO ( Ground Liaison Officer ) at Jammu for onward despatch to Palam. The battalion handed over this carpet to the GLO at Jammu, from whom Major General Atma Singh ( the new Jammu Division Commander ) took it away.

When Para Kumaon was being de-inducted, there were reports that the battalion had stolen some valuables from the Palace. So, the luggage of the troops was searched. No significant item belonging to the palace was found. However, this one action antagonised the battalion against Pritam. Later the battalion's animosity against Pritam was exploited.

The hill feature close to the town was captured by Pritam and was occupied by 1 Para. Later enemy counter attacked this feature and the Commanding Officer ( Lt Col Dharam Singh, who was earlier Pritam’s second-in-command ) and the adjutant of the battalion had run back, leaving behind their personal weapons. Consequent to this incident the morale of the battalion was impacted, so an order was published giving Dharam Singh only operational control of the battalion.

Animosity between Pritam and Gen Atma Singh, the new divisional commander, had reached a stage in which the Chief of Army staff General Cariappa had to call both of them to his office ( by then the war had ended). He told General Atma Singh that Pritam had done a great job at Poonch and this animosity must end. Pritam’s early rise in rank and reputation as a great military leader had led to jealousy amongst many in the army.

It appears that later Gen Cariappa came under pressure to initiate disciplinary action against Pritam. For Gen Cariappa to do this180 degrees turn, the pressure must have been from the PM itself. The Adjutant General then was Hira Lal Atal. Possibly this pressure filtered down to the court. Sheikh Abdullah had close contact with the PM and the Wazir could have pressured the Kashmiri Pandit community in Delhi ( which wielded considerable influence ) for action against Pritam.

At Pritam’s court-marshal there were in all 23 charges, 19 pertaining to the death of the minorities. These were contrary to available evidence and facts on the ground and therefore were dropped. However, this did show the extent to which his antagonists were stretching out to get at him. Of the remaining charges, one pertained to using force against policemen. When produced before the court, these policemen pleaded that they had no complaint and that what they got from Brig Pritam was much less than what they deserved and that they and their families were still alive because Pritam was at Poonch. This charge too was dropped.

The other charge pertained to the theft of the carpet. That carpet had been sent to GLO at Jammu from where Gen Atma Singh had collected it. I Para battalion was made to produce yet another carpet which was 12x12 feet. The carpet collected from the Palace and sent to GLO at Jammu was 14x14 feet. In any case none of these two were with Brig Pritam. So, this charge too had to be dropped.

Finally, two charges of false (inflated) claims were left. These pertained to local -purchase of firewood. One was for Rs 13182 and 8 annas, while the second was for Rs 2603 and annas 2 only. Out of these two claims the excess amount was Rs 10,062 and nine annas ( remaining amount after making payment to firewood contractor against these two inflated claims)

Both these claims were signed by Lt Colonel Dharam Singh, OC, 1Para Battalion and money was received by the battalion. These claims pertained to the period before the publication of the order placing Lt Colonel Dharam Singh, only in operational control of the battalion. In any case during this period Lt Colonel Dharam Singh, as OC Battalion held summary court-marshals and wrote annual confidential reports of his officers, which only one in full command of a unit can do.

Since this surplus amount from these two claims was with the battalion, the quarter master of the battalion was made to give a statement that he handed over the money to Brig Pritam in his office. Now, on the date on which he claimed the money was handed over to Brig Pritam in his office , he was lying wounded and confined to bed for two weeks and as such never went to his office.

Then the Subedar Major of the battalion was made to state that Pritam handed over the money to him for safe keeping. There was a ‘safe' in Pritam's office so why would he give this money to the Subedar Major for safe keeping. In any case the amount was small and could remain in the safe in the brigade commander’s office.

Anyhow the court in its wisdom declared Pritam guilty of these two charges of false claims notwithstanding the evidence on record. The Army Chief approved the findings of the court-martial, pertaining to false claims but did not agree with dropping the charge of theft of carpet. The made- up story of the carpet had been given wide publicity, and the then Army Chief went along with this false perception.

It is quite clear that none of these charges had any rationale and were blatantly false.

I took up Pritam’s case with two successive Army Chiefs, suggesting review of Pritam’s court-martial. Both gave a positive response but there was no outcome. I gave all the papers pertaining to the case to late journalist Khushwant Singh and requested him to take up Pritam’s case. It may be recalled that in France a Jewish officer, Captain Dreyfus was dismissed from service on false charges, a well known journalist, Emile Zola took up his cause and stirred the conscience of the nation. Captain Dreyfus had to be re-instated.

However, Khushwant Singh wrote a meaningless small column in a newspaper. I also had a long interaction with Sardar Swaran Singh (former cabinet minister ) who was the defence council at the Pritam court-marshal. He could not recall all the details but maintained that the charges against Pritam were false and baseless. He remembered Pritam as a very brave man.

I also met Shiekh Abdullah and gave him all the papers. He wrote a strong letter to the President of India on the subject, seeking reopening of the case. Later I rang up the military secretary to the President and he told me that the case has been taken up with the Ministry of Defence but there has been no response.

Is there no court or High Court judge who is willing to look into this case of historic injustice! In the case of justice there can be no time bar, especially where all the relevant evidence is still available?

Is there no one willing to stand by the man who stood by the flag in that year-long storm that raged at Poonch, where crises came with every dawn? One who made the impossible possible.

Lt General HARWANT SINGH is an Army veteran. The views expressed here are the writer’s own.