A soldier to swear-in a soldier today

chandigarh: the swearing-in ceremony at punjab raj bhawan here on wednesday will be an affair involving two unusual soldiers, both of whom are not only authors of war accounts but were also involved in or witness to the critical moments of the september 1965 and the december 1971 indo-pak wars. punjab governor lt gen (retd) jack fredrick ralph jacob, who will be swearing in captain amarinder singh as the new cm, was chief of staff of the eastern army command during the 1971 war.as chief of staff, jacob had played a key role in formulating war tactics that led to the fall of dhaka and in effecting the surrender of east pakistani forces led by lt gen a a k niazi which together led to the birth of bangladesh. in 1996, jacob, who soon after the war raised the nagrota-based 16 corps and later retired as eastern command goc-in-c, published his book, surrender at dacca: birth of a nation, in which he chronicled both the war account as also the politico-diplomatic-military events that led to the formation of bangladesh. similarly, capt amarinder singh had served as an adc to lt gen harbaksh singh when the latter was the western command goc-in-c during the 1965 war. amarinder, who belonged to 2 sikh regiment, was witness to a crucial telephonic conversation in which then chief of army staff gen j n choudhuri asked harbaksh singh to withdraw his forces to beas. defying choudhuri''s directive, harbaksh went on to blunt a pakistani armoured thrust in the historic battle of asal utar, converting it into a graveyard for us-made pakistani patton tanks. amarinder figures prominently in harbaksh''s more recent book, in the line of duty. amarinder, who in 1965 had re-joined the army following the outbreak of the indo-pak war, has only recently authored two books. in 1999, he published lest we forget in which he has given an account of seven key battles fought in three different wars -- the 1947-48 and 1965 indo-pak wars and the 1962 sino-indian war. last year, he published a ridge too far which presents an account of the two-month kargil war of 1999.