New Delhi, June 1
The Chief of Army Staff, General J.J. Singh, today said the Army had already launched an “in-house verification” of the charge made by former Pakistan Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan that an Indian Brigadier had sold 1965 war plans to Pakistan for Rs 20,000.
Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee having already said yesterday that a probe had been ordered into the claims made by the son of former dictator of Pakistan Ayab Khan, the Army Chief said here, “Government has already directed an investigation and the Army was carrying out an in-house verification on whether there is any authenticity or truth in the allegation”.
While pointing out that it would not be correct to reach any conclusions at present the Army Chief said, “We will wait for more information to come from the author if he has made the allegation.”
Gen J.J. Singh had yesterday chaired a high-level meeting at the Army Headquarters here along with the Director General Military Operations, Lt-Gen Madan Gopal, and the Director General Military Intelligence, Lt-Gen Deepak Summanwar.
The Army incidentally is also confident that it would not be difficult to search the Brigadier if the claims of Gohar Ayub Khan turn out to be correct.
Yesterday Defence Minister had said it was difficult to believe that an Indian Army Brigadier would divulge 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, he said while adding this so-called trade-off took place 30-35 years back and it was not known whether that Brigadier was alive or not.
Senior Army officers here while talking on the condition of anonymity had said it would not be difficult to identify the officer involved as at that time there were only a handful Brigadiers in the DGMO and from them not many are alive. Besides, Mr Khan claims that the officer went on to hold a senior position in the Army which again can be verified, sources said. Incidentally, the authorities also plan to check on the identity of all officers who made trips to London where he had apparently met the Brigadier and the money (Rs 20,000) was also handed over to the officer.
The Indian Army’s official records show that between 1947 and 1965, the Directorate of Military Operations (DMO) was headed only by six brigadier-rank officers: Brigadier (now Field Marshal) Sam Manekshaw, G.G. Bewoor (retired as Army chief), D.C. Noronha (retired as Major General), D.K. Palit (retired as Major General), N.C. Rawlley (retired as Lieutenant General) and Narender Singh (retired as Major General).
“Look, we find it difficult to
believe that any one of the these distinguished officers reportedly sold the army’s strategic plans to bankroll their respective wives’ passion for preserving fruit and vegetables,” said a General.
“Also remember that Rs 20,000 — even back in 1965 when the rupee went a long way — was a very small amount to be paid for a plan that would have revealed everything about the army’s total war fighting plans,” said another officer in Army Headquarters.
One of the former directors of military operations, Maj. Gen. Narender Singh, is on record as saying that there was a “minor leak” about the movement of an infantry division from the northeast of Punjab during the 1965 war with Pakistan but he was quick to add there was no sale of a grandiose battle plan.
Former Pakistan Army chief Gen. Mirza Aslam Baig’s statement that his Army had no such plan in its possession has also come as a respite to the Indian Army’s top brass, concerned by Gohar’s “wild allegations”.
In an interview to a TV news channel, Baig said according to Pakistan’s war archives, there was no mention of any such plan procured from an Indian officer.
“The only information that we got was from a dispatch rider from Jammu that the Indian Army would launch its main offensive from Ravi and Chenab region.
“It was a very small plan,” said Baig, who was a Major General in 1965.
Baig also casts doubts of the money allegedly given to the Indian Brigadier in return for the so-called plan and said “for a secret war plan, the amount should have been Rs 20 lakh and not Rs 20,000. It is too small an amount for a plan of such a nature”.
For that much money, a small local plan or a plan for an Army division could have been obtained. “The so-called plan could have also been in the form of deception, whether it was successful or not, I cannot say,” Baig said.
“But when you see the ground reality and when you talk of proofs, there are no proofs, no war archives to corroborate that there was any such plan which was acquired from a top Indian Army official,” he said.
Gohar, 68, was Foreign Minister during the 2002 nuclear standoff with India.
He has refused to name the Brigadier who “sold” the war plan but tantalisingly said he was still alive and retired after reaching a “senior rank” in the Indian Army.
