Monday, June 6 2005 18:04 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Islamabad: Rubbishing Gohar Ayub Khan's claim that Pakistan had bought the 1965 Indian war plan, a retired Pakistani Army officer has said the General Headquarters (GHQ) was not even aware where a major Indian offensive formation had moved to when the hostilities broke out.

"Leave alone knowing every detail of India's offensive plans, GHQ was not even aware in August 1965 where a major Indian offensive formation had moved to," Lt Gen (Retd) Kamal Matinuddin said in an article in 'The News' daily published today (Jun 6, 2005).

Gohar, son of former Pakistan President Field Marshal Ayub Khan, had recently said that his father has bought 1965 Indian war plan from a Brigadier for Rs 20,000.

Matinuddin said if the minutest details of an offensive operation against Pakistan were in Ayub Khan's hands when he was the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, none of the military planners who came after him were aware of such plans.

"If the operation plans of the enemy indeed exist, Ayub Khan must have kept them in his private lockers, as they were never seen in the top-secret files of the Military Operation's Directorate in GHQ," he said.

Ayub Khan's immediate successor, General Mohammad Musa, certainly had no information of the Indian offensive plans, said Matinudin who was a Major in the Infantry Brigade in Khem Karan during the 1965 war.

"Musa's remarks when the war began were 'Gaddar dushman ney rath ke andherey mein hamla kar dia' (the treacherous enemy has attacked in the dark of the night). This surely does not indicate any prior knowledge of Indian plans," he said.

Matiuddin said the Pakistani Army came to know about the Indian troop build up opposite Sialkot only after a chance capture of a dispatch rider carrying the mail of India's armoured division.