BANGALORE: Forty years on, soldiers who took part in the 1971 war to liberate Bangladesh from Pakistan, recount their memories as though it happened yesterday. Some of them remembered the minutest detail of each of their encounters, on ‘Vijay Diwas’ on Friday.Para Trooper BS Jappu, who was only 19 at that time, recalled some incidents. “Do whatever you want for three days, as there is no guarantee of returning from Dhaka,” the Commanding Officer had told Jappu and the other men in Dumdum airport in Kolkatta in 1971.Though apprehensive, the brave men from various Parachute Regiments, were airdropped into Thangale, near Dhaka. “We were only a few thousand men, but the Pakistan had over 85,000 soldiers waiting for us,” added AM Cariappa, from the 17 Para Field Regiment.Stating that they were constantly being fired upon, he said that they found locals hiding from the army to escape the atrocities being committed on them.“We were asked to gather whatever we could and most of us did not even carry food, but only ammunition,” Jappu added and shared that they had to live in a ditch for days and survive on the mercy of a few eggs a day.The two men shared their mutual respect for each other’s regiment on how one could not do without the help of the other. “We are glad, we could return to our homes and not be killed there,” they said.But the brave sons, were in for a rude shock when they retired the uniform. “The civil law has no respect for ex-servicemen,” they said. Earlier, CM D V Sadananda Gowda also made strong note of this.
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