Ex-IAF pilot resurrects ’71 war through book

However, Jafa was soon taken as a Prisoner of War (PoW) and considers himself fortunate to have surmounted the travails to tell the tales of his year-long captivity in Pakistan through his book Three countries, one people.

Explaining the long haul for writing his experiences as a PoW as also those of other fellow Indian fighter pilots, Wing Commander (Retd) Jafa (63) says, “I started writing way back in 1973, but it was writtenin bits and pieces after discussions with the pilots who are the other characters mentioned in the book.”

“Our (the armed forces) heroes continue to be foreigners. It is either Romell or Macarthur, Patten and Canaris. It is time we have our own heroes,” he said after releasing the book on Saturday.

The running narrative of the book is gripping, dealing with life and death etched on a canvas straddling the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971.

Jafa, who was awarded the Vir Chakra after the 1971 war, recounts: “We were objects of great curiosity in Pakistan. Journalists, officers and families would come to meet us and most of the talks revolved around partition, Hindu-Muslim issue and Kashmir,” he recollects.