are you ever going to fly a plane?â But I did!â By 1971 he had been flying almost ten years and had gained a lot of confidence as well as competence.
On 16 December 1971, after ten days of solitary confinement, Grewal was taken outside without a blindfold and allowed to sit in the sun with Flight Lieutenant Harish Sinhji and Flying Officer Kuruvilla. He was meeting both men for the first time. In the next few days he met the others and realized that he was, indeed, one of the lucky ones. In fact other POWs remember Grewal as the strongest and the fittest, a natural partner for Dilip Parulkar in his plan to escape.
Why had Grewal resisted the idea of escape for so long and then changed his mind? This is the way he remembers it: âBy now it was MayâJune in the Indian subcontinent. The days were long and hot with very little news from home about our repatriation. Life started to get very intense and boring.â
Over the next few days Grewal and Dilip confided their plan to their senior officers, Jafa and Coelho. Coelho believed that having highly trained pilots risk their lives in an attempt to escape was very foolish, but since he could not really argue against a POWâs well-known duty to escape, he hesitated to issue the order that would have stopped them. Jafa, on the other hand, realized that Dilip, and now Grewal, were hell-bent on the breakout and saw his role as facilitator. Careful preparation would be essential and he was willing to help.
The discussions began. Not everyone approved, but all were in on the planning, and each had his say. Should they head for India or Afghanistan? What supplies would they need for their trek? How, day after day, could they conceal their preparations from the thirty-five to forty guards who lived on the compound and patrolled around the clock? And who, in the end, should go? Harish Sinjhi was soon itching to be part of the team, but was he strong enough for the journey? These were all vital issues. The camp was abuzz. No one could say it was boring now.
Finally, on 27 May, Radio Pakistan announced that Bhutto would fly to Delhi on 28 June for summit talks with Gandhi. Once again hopes for repatriation rose, but this time Dilip and Grewal did not wait idly. They were determined to have their backup plan ready. If the summit failed to promise repatriation that summer, they would be off.
Meanwhile, northern India and Pakistan experienced the hottest June in years. As the prisoners sweated through the long hot days before the monsoon rains began, one of the first questions to settle was the escape route. If two prisoners could dismantle a section of wall overnight, there was no point in starting that part of the operation yet. The first thing to decide was their ultimate destination. Should they head east to India or west to Afghanistan?
India was certainly much closer. The Indian city of Poonch was only 100 kilometres northeast of Rawalpindi. If they headed for Poonch, which was Dilipâs original plan, they would now have to cross the Jhelum River during the monsoon. But if they headed west to Afghanistan, the border was more than twice as far, and they would have to cross the Indus. Whichever direction they took, they would have to skirt bridges and other possible checkpoints. The plan was to walk at night and hide during the day. They could reach the border near Poonch in three nights but reaching the Khyber Pass would take much longer. Even if they managed to avoid highways and bridges, the longer they were on the road, the more likely they were to be caught.
Of course, the authorities would expect them to head for India, but that wasnât the only problem with destination Poonch. Jammu and Kashmir, where Poonch is located, had been disputed territory since India and Pakistan gained their independence in 1947. After three wars, the line of control there was heavily fortified. They could step on a landmine. They could be shot by their own troops.
The
On 16 December 1971, after ten days of solitary confinement, Grewal was taken outside without a blindfold and allowed to sit in the sun with Flight Lieutenant Harish Sinhji and Flying Officer Kuruvilla. He was meeting both men for the first time. In the next few days he met the others and realized that he was, indeed, one of the lucky ones. In fact other POWs remember Grewal as the strongest and the fittest, a natural partner for Dilip Parulkar in his plan to escape.
Why had Grewal resisted the idea of escape for so long and then changed his mind? This is the way he remembers it: âBy now it was MayâJune in the Indian subcontinent. The days were long and hot with very little news from home about our repatriation. Life started to get very intense and boring.â
Over the next few days Grewal and Dilip confided their plan to their senior officers, Jafa and Coelho. Coelho believed that having highly trained pilots risk their lives in an attempt to escape was very foolish, but since he could not really argue against a POWâs well-known duty to escape, he hesitated to issue the order that would have stopped them. Jafa, on the other hand, realized that Dilip, and now Grewal, were hell-bent on the breakout and saw his role as facilitator. Careful preparation would be essential and he was willing to help.
The discussions began. Not everyone approved, but all were in on the planning, and each had his say. Should they head for India or Afghanistan? What supplies would they need for their trek? How, day after day, could they conceal their preparations from the thirty-five to forty guards who lived on the compound and patrolled around the clock? And who, in the end, should go? Harish Sinjhi was soon itching to be part of the team, but was he strong enough for the journey? These were all vital issues. The camp was abuzz. No one could say it was boring now.
Finally, on 27 May, Radio Pakistan announced that Bhutto would fly to Delhi on 28 June for summit talks with Gandhi. Once again hopes for repatriation rose, but this time Dilip and Grewal did not wait idly. They were determined to have their backup plan ready. If the summit failed to promise repatriation that summer, they would be off.
Meanwhile, northern India and Pakistan experienced the hottest June in years. As the prisoners sweated through the long hot days before the monsoon rains began, one of the first questions to settle was the escape route. If two prisoners could dismantle a section of wall overnight, there was no point in starting that part of the operation yet. The first thing to decide was their ultimate destination. Should they head east to India or west to Afghanistan?
India was certainly much closer. The Indian city of Poonch was only 100 kilometres northeast of Rawalpindi. If they headed for Poonch, which was Dilipâs original plan, they would now have to cross the Jhelum River during the monsoon. But if they headed west to Afghanistan, the border was more than twice as far, and they would have to cross the Indus. Whichever direction they took, they would have to skirt bridges and other possible checkpoints. The plan was to walk at night and hide during the day. They could reach the border near Poonch in three nights but reaching the Khyber Pass would take much longer. Even if they managed to avoid highways and bridges, the longer they were on the road, the more likely they were to be caught.
Of course, the authorities would expect them to head for India, but that wasnât the only problem with destination Poonch. Jammu and Kashmir, where Poonch is located, had been disputed territory since India and Pakistan gained their independence in 1947. After three wars, the line of control there was heavily fortified. They could step on a landmine. They could be shot by their own troops.
The
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