It wasn't Maneckshaw, says aide

Field Marshal Sam Maneckshaw's former military assistant has dismissed Gohar Ayub Khan’s insinuations that the Field Marshal had leaked information about India’s war plans to Pakistan during the 1965 war as a “publicity” stunt.

Speaking to HT, Lt Gen Depinder Singh, staff officer to Field Marshal Maneckshaw during his tenure as the Chief of Army Staff, said Gohar’s statements were “ridiculous”. Lt Gen Singh, who had known the Field Marshal and his family intimately, said the comments were an attempt to get “cheap publicity for Gohar’s forthcoming book.”

Gohar Ayub Khan, a former Pakistan Army officer himself, was an ADC to his father and had later left the service to go into business.

Air Marshal (retd) Randhir Singh, who commanded at an air defence control centre in Ambala base as a Group Captain during the 1965 war, said that Gohar was talking from the enemy's point of view to belittle the senior most officer of the Indian Army and called for Delhi’s intervention.

"One needs to go into the details and take appropriate action on diplomatic and international level. India cannot take this slur laying down," he said.

During the 1965 war Field Marshal Maneckshaw was GOC-in-C of Eastern Army Command and had very little to do in the war, he added.