Maj-General Akhtar Malik and the 1965 Debacle

[Joe Shearer]

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This last post requires some detailed discussion, possible only with access to a keyboard. Soon, I hope!

[AUSTERLITZ]

The 1965 war both pak and indian armies had their chances,pakistan at akhnoor and khem kharan and india at gadgor.Both failed miserably.

[Oscar]

Thanks to the timid nature of a dictator.. even tactically brilliant manoeuvres were made to fail.

[Waffen SS]

Akhtar Malik was a star among the pathetic morons we had in the officer corps.

Akhnoor might have changed the course of history but alas we lost that moment.
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Anyways, we cannot expect much from these 2 subcontinental armies. They just can't operate like the great European armies.

[samantk]

This last post requires some detailed discussion, possible only with access to a keyboard. Soon, I hope!

Sir,

I would like you to share what you wanted to. You have a very deep knowledge and would be delighted to know more.

[Abu Zolfiqar]

This is clearly Military History forum, so this has to be discussed, what else will be discussed here.

These depressing debacles make and break the history of a nation, just like in 1971, the same culprit Yayha Khan was asked to let General Tika go and implement his military strategy, had General Tika been left in charge of the war Sector, the out come may very well have been different. But i guess you learn from your history implement it in present and prepare for the future.

to deny history - to neglect history - to overlook history:


a folly among some of our people.....a crime of TITANIC proportions

[samantk]

This last post requires some detailed discussion, possible only with access to a keyboard. Soon, I hope!

Replying to your PM, I cannot PM you it seems I have to reach a post count of 2000.

Sir,

Please do not insult me as such. I did agree in the end that what you meant was correct not because i am a Hindu bigot but simply because I try hard to be a reasonable person. Also, I do not believe in any religion much. I was told by my father that Hinduism was just a way of living not a religion and somehow I like that idea..

Thanks for accepting my friends request.. I hope to read your response to the thread, for which I am eagerly waiting

@Mods this is off-topic but please let the person I addressed respond before deleting this post.
Samant

[acetophenol]

I only came to know of Maj-General Akhtar Malik when my father told me that a Pakistani Maj-general was about to cut off the logistical supply route of the Indian army and achieve victory but was replaced with drunken bastard Yahya Khan. Yahya allowed the Indian to regroup and they went on to attack Lahore, what a travesty to let such a thing happen.

I only got to know of his name on this forum and learnt that he was creating havoc in Akhnoor by traveling in a helicopter and the Indian army was in disarray but Ayub Khan replaced him with his favorite and the war changed shape. Here are a couple of article's about the incident.

Operation Grand Slam -DAWN Magazine; November 27, 2005





He would have gone on to be the man in charge and gone on to make us so damn proud but what a debacle this was.

Vow!
The article contradicts the popular belief of many pakistani members here!

[Mav3rick]

Funny how it is our own that allowed Indians the chance to save themselves, imagine if General Malik had been allowed to stay on and move into Akhnoor, he would have taken Jammu and Kashmir.

Alas it was not meant to be, but rest assured, he have proven that we have the talent and audacity to face a larger stronger foe. We have done this in the past and today with we can still give a bloody nose to anyone who dares to take any misadventure.

Even today we are taking hits from drones and are being humiliated on daily base because the top most hierarchy of our military lacks the balls to defend the country. Mir Jafar/Mir Sadiq will always be born amongst us.

Ironically, do you know that the first president of Pakistan and last Governor General Iskandar Mirza was great grandson of Mir Jafar? This is our fate.

[Joe Shearer]

Replying to your PM, I cannot PM you it seems I have to reach a post count of 2000.

Sir,

Please do not insult me as such. I did agree in the end that what you meant was correct not because i am a Hindu bigot but simply because I try hard to be a reasonable person. Also, I do not believe in any religion much. I was told by my father that Hinduism was just a way of living not a religion and somehow I like that idea..

Thanks for accepting my friends request.. I hope to read your response to the thread, for which I am eagerly waiting

@Mods this is off-topic but please let the person I addressed respond before deleting this post.
Samant

My dear fellow,

I am so sorry to have upset you. I was merely cautioning you against my crotchety nature and my inability to compromise on this point. Please do not remain under the impression that any further reference to that old thread was meant. It was not.

Warm regards,

'Joe'

[samantk]

My dear fellow,

I am so sorry to have upset you. I was merely cautioning you against my crotchety nature and my inability to compromise on this point. Please do not remain under the impression that any further reference to that old thread was meant. It was not.

Warm regards,

'Joe'

Sir, please do not be sorry, I am eagerly waiting for you to write more on this thread..

[Joe Shearer]

Vow!
The article contradicts the popular belief of many pakistani members here!

There are some possible points of confusion even in these few lines. Please be aware of them.

1. Yahya allowed Harbaksh Singh to rush reinforcements to Akhnoor and save the situation. It had nothing to do with Lahore. Or for that matter with Sialkot. This was a different sector altogether. I feel strongly tempted to write a Dummies Guide to 1965, because it seems that people have forgotten all about it, and retain only half-baked notions about the events.

2. The helicopter story is possibly a conflation of the deeds of 65 and those of 71, by two entirely different generals.

Akhtar Husain Mallik, in 1965, was organizing his attack, having launched it, when on the second day, Chief of Staff Musa Khan located him on the wireless net, flew to his HQ in a helicopter, debouched Yahya, installed him on a verbal command as Div Commander, bundled General Mallik into his chopper and flew away. As M. J. Akbar said about the incident, God was listening only to Indian prayers that day.

In 1971, General Eftekhar (or Iftikhar) Janjua had launched his initial attack on his left flank, been repulsed, shifted his balance in the field of battle by transferring forces to his right flank and broke through. His generalship was active; he was all over the battlefield in his helicopter, driving his unit commanders and his troops, assessing the situation on the ground and ordering a midway correction which worked. By some whim of the god of battle, some Indian soldiers took a potshot at his chopper and shot it down. He suffered grievous injuries, and died two days later in military hospital, the senior most Pakistani officer to die in combat. The Indian troops recovered and managed to hold their positions, once the pressure was let up.

I believe these two stories may have got intermingled.

[T-Faz]

There are some possible points of confusion even in these few lines. Please be aware of them.

1. Yahya allowed Harbaksh Singh to rush reinforcements to Akhnoor and save the situation. It had nothing to do with Lahore. Or for that matter with Sialkot. This was a different sector altogether. I feel strongly tempted to write a Dummies Guide to 1965, because it seems that people have forgotten all about it, and retain only half-baked notions about the events.

2. The helicopter story is possibly a conflation of the deeds of 65 and those of 71, by two entirely different generals.

Akhtar Husain Mallik, in 1965, was organizing his attack, having launched it, when on the second day, Chief of Staff Musa Khan located him on the wireless net, flew to his HQ in a helicopter, debouched Yahya, installed him on a verbal command as Div Commander, bundled General Mallik into his chopper and flew away. As M. J. Akbar said about the incident, God was listening only to Indian prayers that day.

In 1971, General Eftekhar (or Iftikhar) Janjua had launched his initial attack on his left flank, been repulsed, shifted his balance in the field of battle by transferring forces to his right flank and broke through. His generalship was active; he was all over the battlefield in his helicopter, driving his unit commanders and his troops, assessing the situation on the ground and ordering a midway correction which worked. By some whim of the god of battle, some Indian soldiers took a potshot at his chopper and shot it down. He suffered grievous injuries, and died two days later in military hospital, the senior most Pakistani officer to die in combat. The Indian troops recovered and managed to hold their positions, once the pressure was let up.

I believe these two stories may have got intermingled.

In 1965, Lahore was left all open for the Indian Army to attack and they took advantage of this opening by dashing across the border. This shook the core of Pakistani Generals who had always known that any stalemate would result in future consequences. A personal letter written by Maj-General Akhtar Malik to his brother acknowledged the fact that India would gets its revenge and Bangladesh was an area of great interest to them.

Naturally, the way things spanned out after this unnecessary war meant that Pakistan's economic growth was negatively effected, and Bangladesh went further adrift from its western wing.

After the 1971 war, things just become worse and it ignited a reaction that has continue to damage Pakistan ever since.

[COLDHEARTED AVIATOR]

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In my view it would only be stupid to not think of an Indian counter attack and being prepared for it.

The Indian Army was caught by surprise so why let the time go by..didnt the top military leadership have anything to learn from Hitlers attack on the Soviets?

Now my point is that this attack on Akhnoor and then continuing it to capture Jammu city and cutting off Kashmir from India was a superb plan but it should have been the first plan of action.This cant determine the result of the complete war.The Pakistanis should have then asked themselves what would we do if India counter attacks from northern Punjab?..and planned for it.

I was going through a few videos when the forum was down and came across this video.In this video A Khan the former Chief of the Air Force(who retired a few weeks before 65 war) says that they didn not expect the Indians to retialiate.

Shocking..Positively shocking