A prisoner in Pakistan: An IAF pilot’s tale of courage and fortitude

When were you commissioned in IAF?

I was commissioned in June 1967. Flying Officer Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon, Param Vir Chakra was our course-mate. I was awarded a Sword of Honour, best all round fighter pilot trophy and best in academics trophy. And I was first in merit in course. I was a flying officer during the war in 1971.

Where were you based in 1971 war?

Our unit, No. 222 Squadron, was based in Halwara in Punjan and we were flying Sukhoi-7 fighter aircraft. Our forward base was in Amritsar. The whole sqn was in Halwara and we used to operate from Amritsar and come back.

Air Commodore Kuruvilla was awarded Vir Chakra on Jan 26, 1972.

Tell us about the sortie during which you were captured.

I got captured around four days after war started, on Dec 6. Our squadron had the responsibility of looking after the Amritsar region including Dera Baba Nanak. Part of our operational responsibility was to carry put close air support for the Army.

The Pakistan Army had crossed into India in Dera Baba Nanak sector.

One of the task given to us was to tackle the Dera Baba Nanak bridge which was heavily defended by Pakistan. I was the wingman to my CO Wing Commander Allan DCosta. We hit the Pakistani positions and were heading back to base.

About two minutes into our heading back we got a message from our forward air controller that there has been heavy Pakistan Army movement south west of Dera Baba Nanak and it needs to be investigated. He said if you have fuel and ammunition please tackle this.

We turned towards Pakistan and whatever vector was given we followed that. And as we crossed at 100 metres height and we could see heavy military presence in camouflage.

Unknown to us we had detected the strategic reserves of Pakistan. They were moving from Bahawalpur in Pakistan to the Punjab-J&K border to cut off our axis to J&K.

The Ground Liaison Officer particularly spoke to us about a menacing Medium Machine Gun (MMG) position of Pakistan Army. I did two attacks on it. Interestingly, 50 years later, one Colonel Chand of our Army called me up and said he had been looking for me all this while and that he had been present there as Brigade Major of 83 Infantry Brigade and that he had seen the destruction of that MMG position. He also saw my plane being hit and catching fire and me ejecting.

How was your aircraft hit?

It got hit by ground fire. Maybe I flew threw a barrage of anti aircaft fire which hit my engine and smoke started coming out. My controls were not working and aircraft was involuntarily turning left into Pakistan.

I ejected very low and I could see the tree line at the same level as me when I ejected. Not surprisingly I was injured while ejection with a fracture in ankle.

What happened after you landed?

When I landed I buried my parachute and took out my pistol and buried it too. The reason why I did so was because if you got caught with a weapon by civilians, they shoot you with same weapon. This has happened with one of IAF Pilots. I started crawling east towards India. After crossing 150 yards i saw a small barbed wire fence running east to west. I suspected it to be a minefield. So I crawled back. It was around 7:15 in the morning.
After about 100 yards the elephant grass gave way and I could hear heavy firing taking place. Right over my head my CO had sent four more aircraft to carry out strikes. I saw a MMG bunker with soldiers wearing khaki uniform and green helmets. I knew these were Pakistani soldiers. I crawled back in grass and lay face down. At around 10:15 am I felt a hand on the collar of my neck and pulled me up. There were three Pakistan Army soldiers including one Havildar. Two of them were armed. These fellows started hitting me with rifle butts. Especially on my shoulders. To this I feel the pain in my shoulders especially If I have to do something with extra effort at this age.

(Note: Air Commodore Kuruvilla went kn to eject two more times from Sukhoi-7 later in his career, both sue to aircraft failures. One ejection was in Najafgarh near Delhi in 1980 and next in 1981 while doing simulated air combat near Hindon near Ghaziabad).

What happened after your capture?

The soldiers stripped me, blindfolded me and took me to their bunker. There were no officers there. You must note that Indian Army battles are led by officers but in Pakistan, on that forward most picquet, there was no officer. For four hours there was no officer.

Even when a jeep came to fetch me there was no officer. The Baloch Havildar in charge of the post stopped the Punjabi from killing me. “Ennu brust (burst) maaro,” (kill him with a burst of rifle fire) the two Punjabi jawans of Pakistan Army kept saying. I knew enough Punjabi to know what they meant. The Baloch Havildar did not let them kill me. However, he took away the thick gold chain I was wearing which belonged to my mother.

What happened thereafter?

I was taken away in a Jeep and drove for about two hours. I was blindfolded and hands and legs were tied. I could hear artillery fire in the distance and military words like ‘Bravo, Charlie etc spoken on Army radio network. Some time later, I was again taken away and drove for another five-six hours. And when I reached some place, I was put in in a cell and my blindfold was taken away. I calculated I was in Gujranwala by calculating the time we had spent driving and the direction of sunlight on my face.

At midnight a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) team came, handcuffed me and took me away. I was given no shoes. I was only wearing my inner clothes and overalls in the bitter cold.

Next morning I was taken to Rawalpindi and I was put in a cell. First three days I was not given any food. Only blankets were provided and I remained in the cell 6 feet X 4 feet in solitary confinement. I was also put on TV as a show of bravado by Pakistan Army. This was monitored in India and that is how my family came to know that I was alive.

How were you interrogated?

I was interrogated by a PAF team. I had made up a story. Instead of 222 Squadron, I had said I belonged to 22 Squadron. They did not believe me. They would put me out in cold weather for hours with naked feet. My legs would lose all sensation in such circumstances.

Punishment was also psychological. If you asked to go to toilet they would purposely come late and make you relieve yourself in your cell. After four days or so we finally got dal and roti. We demanded meat but were given some disagreeable stuff but we ate that too.

Did you protest against this treatment?

On 5th day I made up my mind. That evening I asked for a pencil and paper and I told the guy in charge of us, a Warrant Officer Rizvi, that I was being treated badly and not as per Geneva convention. We all knew our rights. He actually gave me a pencil and a paper to my surprise and I made an application to International Red Cross Committee (ICRC) detailing all mistreatment given to me. On Dec , suddenly 15 we were all dressed up and were put up before a ICRC Western representative with PAF and Pak Army officers present. This person spoke in a French accent and told me that all will change and he will ensure things change.

He showed me my application. So it actually reached him. He said there are 93,000 Pakistani prisoners in India and they cannot mistreat you. This piece of information made me very happy that we had so many Pakistani prisoners.

Our food improved that day on. From one meal a day we got three meals a day. On Dec 25 we were again dressed up and taken to a room where I saw 11 other Indians PoWs for the first time. I also learnt in the meantime that we were held prisoners at 3 Provost and Security Unit (P&SU) of PAF in Rawalpindi.

How did captivity effect you psychologically?

There was a marked intelligence decay.

I started forgetting spellings in solitary confinement. For a long time we had no reading material. We were given letters to write home after a long time. One fine day on July 3, Wing Commander Wahiduddin, our secondcamp commandant came and said I have a surprise for all of you. He pulled out a copy of Pakistan Times newspaper. The headlines said “India returns 5000 square miles of territory, PoWs to follow”. We were disappointed that there was no mention of Indian PoWs.

That very evening we had a meeting and we decided to escape. The real person enthusiastic about arranging an escape was Flight Lieut Dilip Parolkar. He was always saying this is just not on and we had to escape. The senior-most officer among us PoWs was Wing Commander Bunny Coelho, CO 7 Squadron who was flying Hunters.

Sqn Ldr DS Jafa was also very active in organising the escape. Imagine he was the Staff Officer to the IAF Chief during the war but and he volunteered to go back to active flying and was shot down and taken PoW.

Why were you disappointed on reading the Pakistani newspaper?

We went through the newspaper and read every word. When we realised that nothing was said about us PoWs by the PM Mrs Indira Gandhi while Pak PM Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was making lot of noise about Pak PoWs, we were very disappointed. For whatever reasons the PM chose not to speak about us, we felt we had been forgotten. It disappointed me as the youngest officer in the group as PoW. We fought and we actually gave our lives. That we lived was a matter of an extremely good ejection seat. When my parachute opened the trees were already on my eyeline, I was so low. All of us got our lives back because of the ejection seats worked. And when your leaders do not think about you…… it was a general thought. Not for any person.

How did you plan the escape?

After doing survey of the area and PoW camp we realised that the room where we were sitting was the best place and behind the room there was open space in Air Force selection centre. And this room had just a thick wall and then you were in open ground. And the selection centre was on highway from Rawalpindi to Peshawar. It was decided that Dilip Parolkar, MS Grewal and Harish Singhji would escape.

We compromised a civilian worker named Akbar and gave him money. We got local outfits stitched . We had a eight band transistor and we used the batteries to magnetise a needle.

And that needle was made into compass needle, pivoted by a titch button showing true north. We were near Chaklala air base and from the PAF sorties coming and going there we could know the general direction of the camp.

Sqn Ldr MV Kamath was the one who actually took on the task of making compass. He was highly technical.

Then we started pooling money. We got equivalent of 21 or 22 Francs from ICRC. It worked out Pakistani Rs 47 per month. A part of it we would pool as escape kitty.

The escapees were to head for Afghan border. We got fake ID cards made. The story made up was that these were a group of airmen from Lahore on sightseeing visit to Landi Kotal on Afghan border.

We started digging the wall. Kept scraping with fork which we had stolen. Dust was accumulated in pockets and flushed in toilet of the cell.

Brick by brick we took it out. At end of 40 days we could see mortar on other side.

What happened after the escape?

The escape was organised on Aug 14, 1972, Pakistan Independence Day. All hell broke out when the escape was discovered. Everything was taken away from us and I was left with no clothing and with just a tooth brush.

We were transferred to Lyallpur maximum security prison. The three who escaped later got caught in Peshawar.

How much time did you spend in Lyallpur prison?

We spent eight months in Rawalpindi and four months in Lyallpur. One day suddenly in November 1972 the Colonel in charge of the PoW camp asked our help in building a helipad in the prison. I was directed by Wing Commander Coelho to carry out the task with Indian PoWs. There were 600 army prisoners in that prison. I took 10 indian jawans and cleared up an area and marked it as helipad with wind sock.

A week later, on December 1, 1972 we were all dressed up and moved to one courtyard right next to main gate of the prison. A helicopter arrived at the prison and in walked Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto wearing a pinstripe suit. I can remember the event down to every detail. He stood behind a chair and said in crisp English, “Gentlemen, I want you all to go home. Please tell your country that Pakistan wants peace with India. And please send back our 93,000 Prisoners of War,”. This is all he said and walked out. I remember each word.

We translated what he said in Hindi to the jawans and understandably we were all jubilant to be going home.

Did you ever hear about other Indian PoWs in Pakistan’s custody who never came back?

No we knew of no one else. We were only informed about Flight Lieutenant Vasant Tambey (believed to be still in Pak custody). One PAF officer came to us and showed us a helmet which he claimed to be Tambey’s and said that he had shot him down and he was killed. But we found that a very strange thing to do. Why should he have made that special effort?

How did you get your gold chain back?

This incident took place just before I crossed the border back into India on Dec 4, 1972. Just as I was heading towards the border crossing at Wagah-Attari, I saw a Baloch Regiment jawan standing with a black chain dangling. Something struck me
in my mind and I went back and rubbed the chain clean. It turned out to be my gold chain.

This was the honesty of that Baloch Regiment Havildar. I do not think he had come himself to return the chain but he had sent someone from his unit. I was told I will have to sign for the chain and I went back and completed the process in about 40 minutes. As a result I was the last to enter India and just minutes before the border closed that evening.

(Air Commodore Kuruvilla was awarded Vir Chakra on Jan 26, 1972. He went to to command a MiG-27 ML Squadron (No. 9). He also served as Defence Attache to Iran, Station Commander Avantipur, Air Officer Commanding Jodhpur and Deputy Commandant Air Force Academy)