Click to play videoNew Delhi: India’s first Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, who is credited with crafting the campaign that led to the creation of Bangladesh after the 1971 war with Pakistan, died early on Friday morning in Wellington in Tamil Nadu.
Manekshaw, 94, had been battling a series of old age-related ailments. He breathed his last at the Military Hospital in Wellington, where he settled down after retiring as the Army chief in 1973.
The Padma Vibhushan and Military Cross awardee, who was admitted in the hospital for "progressive lung disease," had slipped into coma and the end came just after midnight at 0030 hours IST, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.
Manekshaw had developed "acute bronchopneumonia with associated complications" and was placed under intensive care four days ago after his condition became serious.
President Pratibha Patil condoled the death of the Field Marshal along with Defence Minister A K Antony who said, "In his demise, the nation has lost a great soldier, a true patriot and a noble son."
Manekshaw was conferred the honorary rank of Field Marshal for his stellar leadership during the Bangladesh campaign that saw the surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistani troops on December 16, 1971 in Dacca, then the capital of East Pakistan and which has now been renamed Dhaka.
During the 1971 war, Manekshaw showed uncanny ability to motivate the forces, coupling it with a mature war strategy.
When former prime minister Indira Gandhi asked him to go to Dhaka and accept the surrender of Pakistani forces, Manekshaw declined, magnanimously saying that honour should go to his Army commander in the East (Lt Gen Jagjit Singh Aurora).
Born in Amritsar on April 3, 1914, Manekshaw was commissioned into the Army from the first course of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, in 1934. He saw action in Burma, now Myanmar, during the Second World War and became the Indian Army chief on June 7, 1969.
The President conferred upon him the rank of Field Marshal on January 1, 1973. Manekshaw retired a fortnight later (although technically Field Marshals of the Indian Army never retire because the rank is conferred for life), on January 15, 1973, after completing nearly four decades of military service.
Manekshaw’s illustrious career:
- The architect of India’s biggest military victory in the 1971 war, Manekshaw was the first Indian Army officer to be promoted to the highest military rank of Field Marshal.
- He was born in Amritsar to Parsi parents on April 3, 1914, and was part of the first batch of recruits at the Indian Military Academy in 1932.
- He was decorated for gallantry in World War II, during which he was gravely wounded in operations against the Japanese Army in Burma.
- He played a key role in the tumultuous days following the Partition.
- As director of Military Operations, he masterminded the massive airlift of Indian troops to Kashmir, which saved Srinagar from Pakistani invaders in October 1947.
- In the thick of India’s military humiliation in 1962, Manekshaw was handpicked to revive the Indian Army in Arunachal Pradesh.
- In 1969, he became the eighth chief of the Indian Army.
- In 1973, he was promoted Field Marshal, and in this capacity, continued to be the father figure for the Indian Army till his death on Friday.
(With agency inputs)
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