Gauhar gives it away this time
In an interview, Pakistan’s former foreign minister gives four descriptions of the brigadier (who 'sold' 1965 war plans to Pakistan), which individually and collectively fitted the legendary Sam, reports Rahul Singh.
Khan Gauhar Ayub Khan, son of the late Pakistan President Ayub Khan, had set the cat among pigeons last year when he had outrageously claimed that an Indian Army brigadier, who later rose to hold the highest office, had sold 1965 war plans to Pakistan for Rs 20,000.
One year after he came close to identifying Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw as that brigadier on the basis of his father Ayub Khan’s diaries in an exclusive interview to HT, Gauhar Khan is at it again, and this time on national television.
In an interview to journalist Karan Thapar on CNBC’s ‘Devil’s Advocate,’ Pakistan’s former foreign minister gave four descriptions of the brigadier, which individually and collectively fitted the legendary Sam.
Khan said the officer who sold war plans was from the first contingent of the Indian Military Academy (IMA).
Sam, of course, had joined the first batch of 40 cadets at IMA on October 1, 1932. Giving out more, Gauhar Khan said the officer was commissioned in the Indian Army in December 1934 in the 5th Battalion of the 12 Frontier Force, which is again true of Sam.
Further ‘revealing’ the identity of the so-called brigadier, he said the officer was wounded on February 22, 1942, and awarded the Military Cross. As always, Khan added that he rose to the highest possible rank in the military.
Responding to the observation that the descriptions given by him fitted Sam, Khan said, “If the cap fits Manekshaw, he must wear it.” He refused to retract or amend his accusations against India’s best-known war hero. He also claimed that his book, which will be out in six months, would contain all details. Former Army vice chief Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi feels Khan is throwing out a red herring as he hardly has anything to write about his father’s achievements in the book.
Oberoi said, “He initially tried to create a sensation by claiming that Pakistan army had come up to Beas bridge during the 1965 war. But the truth is that the entire offensive force of Pakistan including its famed armoured division met its graveyard in Khem Kharan”.