M A I N   N E W S

‘Brigadier’ can be identified
Govt to look into allegations, says Pranab
Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

Congress President and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukharjee at the commissioning of the sea bird project named as INS Kadamba at Karwar in Karnataka on Tuesday. — PTI photo

New Delhi, May 31
Even as Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee today ordered a probe into the claims made by Mr Gohar Ayub Khan, former Pakistan Foreign Minister and son of the late President Ayub Khan, that an Indian Army Brigadier sold war plans in 1965 to Pakistan for Rs 20,000, Army officials here said it would not be difficult to identify the officer.

The seriousness with which the Indian establishment has taken the claims made by the son of the former dictator of Pakistan can be visualised from the fact that there were virtual alarm bells ringing in the Army Headquarters with the Chief of Army Staff, Gen J.J. Singh, holding a series of meetings with his senior officers.

He held meetings not only with Army top brass, including the Director-General (Military Operations), Lieut-Gen Madan Gopal, and the Director-General (Military Intelligence), Lieut-Gen Deepak Summanwar, but also with Ministry of Defence (MoD) officials.

The Army top brass and the MoD officials reviewed the situation that has arisen out of the claims made by Mr Khan in his autobiography and will take steps to find the veracity of the claims.

Mr Mukherjee told reporters in Karwar (Karnataka), where he had gone to inaugurate an Indian naval base in the presence of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, that the government would look into the allegations. He, however, said it was difficult to believe that an Indian Army Brigadier would betray national secrets for money.

Moreover, no officer or a single individual, let alone a Brigadier, would be privy to total and comprehensive military and war plans, the Defence Minister said, adding that this so-called trade-off took place 30-35 years ago and it is not known whether the Brigadier is alive or not.

The government, however, would look into the matter and analyse the so-called facts mentioned in the news reports, he said.

Meanwhile, senior Army officers here, talking on the condition of anonymity, said if the allegations made by Mr Khan turned out to be correct in the investigations carried out by the Army Headquarters, it would not be difficult to identify the officer involved. There were only a handful of Brigadiers in the DGMO and not many were alive.

Besides, Mr Khan claim that the officer went on to holding a senior position in the Army that again could be verified, the officers said.

Incidentally, the authorities also plan to check on the identity of all officers who made trips to London in 1967, where apparently the money (Rs 20,000) was handed over to the officer for passing on the secret plans pertaining to Indian “attack on Pakistan” in 1965.

Mr Khan has said that his father, who was President and Chief of Army during the 1965 war, managed to get the actual war plans, including defensive and offensive operations of India, from a Brigadier serving in the Indian directorate-general of military operations.

The Brigadier sold these plans as he needed the money for his wife who wanted to buy equipment for her hobby of canning fruits and vegetables, Mr Khan told Pakistani newspaper The News. He has said all details about the alleged trade-off would be described in his autobiography scheduled to hit the stands in December.

He has also claimed that the officer is alive.