By Manuwant Choudhary
I am not sure about others but for some years now I am not interested in speeches from Delhi's Red Fort, extempore or otherwise.
What interests me are stories like Longewala...
I am told Sunny Deol's film Border is based on this famous battle.
But watching a film is nothing like actually being at Longewala...
While India was focussed on the eastern front..liberating Bangladesh...Pakistan attacked India at this point on the western front...
First a tank moved in but it got stuck in the sands...so it called for back-up...soon a crane arrived...accompanied by some force and a Pakistani brigadier....like some siblings fighting over land....in the cover of darkness they tried to shift the Indian border pillar some 10 kms here...
It all happened on the the night of 4th-5 December 1971.
A lone gunner and some soldiers stood guard at this Indian post..the back-up forces were 70 kms away....
The Pakistani's did not see them....
The Indians sent an SOS but they all knew that the back-up could not arrive immediately...
The soldiers had just two choices, either they face the assault or they retreat.
They chose the former.
The lone gunner took his aim and boom....the Pakistani tank was destroyed, alongwith the crane and the Pakistani brigadier killed...
More Pakistani tanks followed but the few Indian soldiers obstructed them and died here fighting until Indian airforce gave them air-cover and destroyed the Pakistani tanks completely.
36 Pakistani tanks were destroyed here and so Longewala is called `a graveyard of tanks'...this was the highest number of tanks destroyed in battle since the second world war.
Forget the Red Fort, this independence day and every other day always say a prayer for the lone soldier who stays awake on the frontlines...in the line of fire...only to protect us.
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