1971 war hero cremated

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 31

The mortal remains of 1971 war hero Brigadier Narinder Singh Sandhu (retd), a Maha Vir Chakra awardee, were consigned to the flames here on Saturday with full military honours. A large number of serving and retired officers, relatives and well-wishers bid adieu to the 85-year-old war veteran who had been battling cancer.

Prominent among them were the General Officer Commanding, 1 Corps, Lt Gen AS Kler, who is Brigadier Sandhu’s son-in-law, the Chief of Staff, Western Command, Lt Gen GS Dhillon, Deputy Chief of Army Staff and Colonel of the Dogra Regiment Lt Gen Ranbir Singh, the Director Sainik Welfare, Punjab, Brig JS Arora, president and vice-president of War Decorated India Lt Gen GS Sihota and Brig KS Chandpuri, respectively, Colonel of the 65 Armoured Regiment and General Officers Commanding of several divisions based in the region. The Commanding officer of 10 Dogra, the battalion Brigadier Sandhu had commanded in the India-Pakistan war, was present too.

A ceremonial guard from the Dogra Regiment and 3 Cavalry reversed arms as a mark of respect while buglers sounded the Last Post. Wreaths were laid on behalf of the Governor, the Punjab Chief Minister and the GOC-in-C, Western Command. However, no political leader or senior officer from Punjab was seen.

An alumnus of Khalsa College, Amritsar, Brigadier Sandhu was commissioned into 3 Cavalry in 1953. While commanding 10 Dogra in the Dera Baba Nanak Sector in 1971, he captured a key bridge in Pakistan’s territory, aborting the enemy’s attempts to mount an offensive into Punjab. In spite of a bullet injury in his leg, he continued to lead his men.

During the 1965 Indo-Pak war earlier, he had been Mentioned-in-Dispatches for gallantry in the Battle of Asal Uttar in Punjab when his lone cavalry unit destroyed several M-47 Patton tanks of a Pakistani armoured division.

Pilot of AI plane hijacked in 1971 dead

Faridabad: Capt MK Kachru, pilot of the Indian Airlines plane hijacked to Pakistan in January 1971, died here on Saturday after prolonged illness. He was 93. Capt Kachru was flying an Indian Airlines plane, carrying 26 passengers and a crew of four, from Srinagar to Jammu when two Kashmiris hijacked it and forced him to fly to Lahore. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, then foreign minister of Pakistan, turned up at the airport and hailed the hijackers, who had demanded the release of some prisoners from Indian jails. The demand was refused by India. PTI