The family members of Param Vir Chakra awardee Abdul Hamid recently objected to the removal of the 1965 India-Pakistan war veteran’s name from a primary school building in Uttar Pradesh. On Monday (February 17), the name was restored. Speaking to PTI, Hamid’s grandson Jameel Ahmed said the words “PM Shri Composite School” were painted at the entrance last week amid repainting work, replacing “Shaheed Hamid Vidyalaya”. The school is located in the Dhamupur village of Ghazipur district, where Hamid once studied. The family complained to Basic Education Officer Hemant Rao, who said, “Shaheed Abdul Hamid's name would soon be reinstated at the school’s main entrance,” adding that it was inscribed on an external wall. Hamid is known for his role in the Battle of Asal Uttar in Punjab. Incidentally, the name of the village as pronounced in Punjabi is ‘Aasal Utaad’ but it has changed to Asal Uttar (meaning ‘real reply’ in Hindi) over the years after the riposte delivered to the enemy by the Indian Army. It was here that the Pakistan Army had launched an offensive with an armoured division and had overrun Indian positions to attempt to capture large swathes of territory. The Indian Army made a decisive stand which blunted the Pakistani attack, forcing them back and capturing a large number of their Patton tanks and taking an equally large number of Pakistani officers and soldiers as prisoners of war. What was the Battle of Asal Uttar? In the early days of the 1965 war, the Indian Army’s offensive in Punjab on September 6 caught Pakistan by surprise. It was aimed to offset the attack launched by the Pakistan Army in the Chhamb sector of Jammu and Kashmir. After being dislodged from their positions and routed by the quick Indian thrust in the Khemkaran sector, the Pakistan Army launched an ambitious counterattack with its 1 Armoured Division. It wanted to capture the Indian towns of Raya and Beas on the GT Road and cause a major chunk of Indian Punjab to be cut off from the rest of the country by securing the bridge over the Beas river. The Pakistan Army’s advance caught the Indian 4 Mountain Division unawares and captured the town of Khem Karan, 5 km from the border and 7 km from Asal Uttar. The then Western Army Commander, Lt Gen Harbaksh Singh, noted in his book War Despatches that the 4 Mountain Division hastily occupied a defended sector at Asal Uttar on the morning of September 8. The Battle happened from September 8 to 10, resulting in the decimation of the Pakistani attack and total rout till Khemkaran. However, the town itself remained under Pakistani occupation till after the ceasefire and it was exchanged back for Indian-occupied areas in Pakistan. In this decisive battle fought by the 2nd Armoured Brigade of the Indian Army, the Pakistan Army lost 97 tanks, its showcase US-made equipment, with one entire cavalry regiment of the enemy having been captured and destroyed. After the war, the captured Patton tanks were displayed near Bhikhiwind, about 10 km from Asal Uttar, and the place briefly came to be known as ‘Patton Nagar’. What was CQMH Abdul Hamid’s role? Company Quarter Master Havildar (CQMH) Abdul Hamid was leading a detachment of Recoilless Guns mounted on a jeep that was essentially hunting enemy tanks in the fields of the villages surrounding Asal Uttar. On the afternoon of September 10, a well-placed group of soldiers of 4 Grenadiers opened fire on a convoy of Pakistani Commanders who were coming down the Khemkaran-Bhikhiwind road for reconnaissance. The Pakistani Artillery Commander Brig AR Shami was killed in this shootout and his body was buried on the battlefield by Indian troops with full military honours. On September 9 and 10, Abdul Hamid was also hunting down Patton tanks in the same area. On September 10, he came upon four Pakistani tanks in the sugarcane fields and fired at them from near point-blank range, destroying four Patton tanks and disabling another. However, he also came under fire from an enemy tank. He died after a direct hit to his jeep. For this supreme act of gallantry, CQMH Abdul Hamid was awarded the Param Vir Chakra, the nation’s highest gallantry award. The grave and a war memorial to the Battle of Asal Uttar are located on the outskirts of Chima Village on the Khemkaran-Bhikhiwind road in the Tarn Taran district of Punjab. The grave is maintained by the 7 Infantry Division of the Army and every year a function is held to honour the war hero. It is located around 100 metres away from the dense grove from where Hamid aimed at Pakistani tanks. A captured Pakistani Patton tank stands guard at the entrance of the memorial, with its turret down, as a tribute to the Indian soldiers who fought and died in the Battle of Asal Uttar.
