Lieutenant General Ghulam Mustafa (Retd) was in tenth class in the Military College Sarai Alamgir near Jhelum when the war broke out on 6th September 1965.
While speaking to The Nation, Lt. Gen Mustafa said that he and a group of students were asked by the commandant to listen to the radio as the President of Pakistan Field Marshal Ayub Khan was addressing the nation.
He said that, “The speech was so energizing that we wanted to take part in the war too and fight the Indians.” They were however told to resume classes but FM Ayub Khan’s address had made the students restless.
By afternoon the students of Military College Jhelum were out on the roads wielding sticks ready to fight against the Indians. Lt. Gen Mustafa said, “We [students] realized Jhelum Bridge was a sensitive location so we reached there to guard it but Pakistan army soldiers were already on their positions. They asked us to go back as we should not be there.”
They had no option but to return so on their way back the group kept thinking of how to fight the war. “On our way back, we saw a beggar and caught hold of him under suspicion that he was a spy. We beat him up and handed him over to the police but later it was found out that he was no spy,” said Lt. Gen Mustafa.
He said that a nephew of President Ayub khan, General Musa’s and General Yayha’s sons were his class fellows. “All of us had one aim, to beat India, none of us was scared.”
Lt Gen Mustafa recalled of the passion of the people when the news came that India had attacked Pakistan. He said, “Whenever Indian planes use to fly over Pakistan, people use to run after them with sticks.”
Even today there are people in Pakistan who believe that men in green dress where helping the Pakistan Army fighting shoulder to soulder with the troops, however Lt Gen Mustafa said, “I never heard such things from people who fought the war, however later when I joined the army I read reports on 65 war and reached the conclusion that apart from soldiers resolve and ammunition, Pakistan was saved in 1965 by some spiritual powers also.”
