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A daring Pakistani who escaped Indian clutches

Josy Joseph in Agra

Major (retd) Ikram Sehgal has a daring story of escape from his Indian captors during the 1971 Indo-Pak war, after his own soldiers revolted in Bangladesh.

His escape route was through Calcutta, Delhi and Agra.

At Agra's Raja ki Mandi railway station he boarded a train to Kanpur. From there he reached Lucknow and then finally escaped to Nepal.

Sehgal is among the 21 Pakistani soldiers who escaped Indian detention. There were about 100000 Pakistani prisoners of war during the 1971 war.

Sehgal returned within weeks to the battlefield to stage some memorable fights against the Indian army during the same war.

He is back in Agra, for the first time in 30 years, with memories of the war that changed his life.

Not bitter at the treatment that he received in India last time, but with a peace message and hoping for the best from the Agra summit.

On Monday morning, Sehgal would go down to Raja ki Mandi railway station, with a tabeez (charm) full of teeth marks.

He used to hold the tabeez between his teeth during his torture by the Border Security Force personnel.

The tabeez and the Quran are treasured in his wallet, and travels with him wherever he goes.

Today swearing by the same Quran, Sehgal believes it is time for peace. His dark days of being a prisoner and his daring escape are fresh and a reminder of the bitter history of the subcontinent.

"When I came to India as a captured soldier in 1971, there was animosity all around. But when I met people who didn't know that I was a soldier they were helping me and the animosity went away from me," he recalled.

He particularly remembers a scrap dealer in whose truck he travelled till Calcutta while escaping from Indian custody. He gave Sehgal one rupee for expenses.

And that set off a journey that has taken him from being an aggressive, professional soldier to a leading dove and owner of Pakistan's biggest security agency. He is also the editor of three magazines, including the Defence Journal.

Full of appreciation for Major RS Uppal, under whom he was a PoW, Sehgal pointed out that the Indian Army is highly professional, while the BSF is ruthless.

However, he would rather not discuss those days. Today, he is advocating peace more hawkishly than anyone else.

He left the army because, 'If I don't hate somebody why should I kill him?'

"I am a dove. I am in a majority in Pakistan. I was in a minority in my country earlier. But today people realise the need for peace," he said.

"What is the end of all wars? If we win over India, or vice versa what is the future?" he questioned.

If Sehgal had continued in the army, today he would have been the second senior most officer after General Pervez Musharaf.

"He is one of the most well read soldiers our army has produced. He is very decisive and is incapable of telling a deliberate lie. Everything about him is there to see," he argued.

He believes that it would be much easier for Musharraf to sell a compromise to his people than it would be for Vajpayee to his countrymen.

Recalling his daring escape Sehgal said that it was on July 16, 1971 that he escaped from the Panagarh PoWs camp.

And on Monday, the day two of the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit, it would be exactly 30 years since he escaped.

The escape itself was unbelievable.

After being confined to a temporary tent, Sehgal started removing bolts from the tent. After several days of careful work, and stacking a lungi and shorts into a pillow cover, he escaped on the night of July 16, 1971, two days before his 25th birthday.

"I rolled under three barbed wires and reached a high rise wall. I climbed a small tree and jumped across the wall and reached the road in the night. I then climbed the back of civilian trucks whenever they slowed down. I covered almost 20 miles that night. Next day morning, I approached a scrap truck driver and told him that I have been looted by Naxals and he offered to drop me to Calcutta," he recalled.

By 4 pm when he reached Calcutta, the owner of the scrap offered the captain one rupee and wished him well without realising who he was.

His final escape from India came later, after much disguise and difficulties. Later he returned to the battlefront and fought bravely and was promoted as a Major.

There were several who suffered because of his escape.

His fellow PoWs were tortured and Major Uppal lost his brilliant career in army. All that sufferings seems to have turned Sehgal into a preacher of peace.

And a good one at that.

Indo-Pak Summit 2001: The Complete Coverage

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