India may have won the 1965 war but Pakistan has taken the lead in the virtual space by claiming that it came out the winner in the fortnight-long war 50 years back. While India is still getting its act together to celebrate the victory in September, Pakistan has already flooded YouTube and social media for the past one month with rare video footage captured by its cameramen of the war claiming that its army and air force gave India a bloody nose.
New Delhi too has rare footage shot by the Films Division but it has still to come out of archives, thereby giving Pakistan a head start on the perception war. Given this situation, the Defence Ministry is now working overtime to get hold of photographs of the war — including the famous victory over Pakistan Army in Haji Pir in Kashmir. These photographs will be released to the media in a phased manner in the days to come to counter Pakistan offensive.
On the one hand, Islamabad has criticised the Narendra Modi Government’s decision to mark the 50 years of the war in a grand manner in September as it will hamper normalisation of relations between the two countries, on the other Pakistan has itself launched a blitzkrieg of sorts by uploading video footage on social media.
Incidentally, Pakistan celebrates its “victory” on September 6 as national holiday every year for the last many decades and telecasts video and photographs on its national television channel.
Admitting that Pakistan has taken advantage of social media in an “effective” manner, officials said here on Saturday the Indian Government is also now gearing up to meet the challenge in the virtual space. Disclosing that Films Division cameramen embedded with the Army and IAF during the 1965 war had captured rare video footage of heroics of Indian soldiers, they said it will come out slowly in the public domain shortly.
The footage covers famous tank battles in the plains of Punjab and Jammu apart from the Army’s offensive across Amritsar in Pakistan when the Indian forces nearly reached lahore forcing Pakistan to come to the negotiating table in Tashkent.
Similarly, the Defence Ministry and Films Division also have excellent film footage and photographs of India’s assault on strategically important Haji Pir pass which links Poonch with Uri. In fact, when the Indian forces reached the top of the pass in early morning hours, many Pakistani officers were taking it easy in their night suits as they had never anticipated such a bold attack. The pass was later returned to Pakistan after the Tashkent talks between then Prime Minister lal Bahadur Shastri and Pakistan President Ayub Khan.
Ramping up its efforts to ensure that the event is a grand affair, the Defence Ministry is preparing to hold photo exhibitions at various places in New Delhi, including Rajpath, displaying for the first time photographs of the Haji Pir assault besides Indian offensive on other fronts during the war, officials said.
The conflict began on September 2 and last till September 26 after Pakistan stirred up trouble in Kashmir in August. Before minor skirmishes had taken place between the Indian and Pakistani forces in Rann of Kutch in April 1965.