#1965War
Subedar Ghulam Muhammad of 15 Punjab (Pak Army) greets Lt Col Anant Singh, CO 4 Sikh (Indian Army) as he arrives at prisoner of war camp near Lahore.
It was the first meeting of the two since they fought together in World War II.
Lt Col Anant Singh along with 143 soldiers surrendered in Khem Kharan sector to an Arty Regiment of Pakistan Army which was raised by Maharaja of Kashmir, as part of state forces in 1843.
4 Sikh was given a very ambitious task in extremely unfavourable environment. The brave CO still accepted the challenge but had to surrender to 6 Lancer.
Lt Col Anant Singh's unit was initially deployed at Burki village and was selected by Gen Harbaksh Singh to take part in a counter attack on Khem Karan scheduled on 12 Sept.
Lt Col Sahibdad Khan, CO 6 Lancers of Pak Army had embraced Shahadat on 9 Sept near Asal Uttar while leading his regiment from the front. Col Anant Singh selected his fittest but exhausted 200 men for the operation to attack Khem Karan from south west but was caught up among positions of 6 Lancers, B Squadron 15 Lancers and 3 SP Field Regiment. All three units of Pak Army claim the capture of Col Anant Singh and his 143 men. None of these units is prepared to concede to the other any more credit than bagging a few stragglers who slipped out of their hands. However from the Indian accounts, Anant Singh ran into a Second Lieutenant of 3rd SP Regiment, thinking that these were Indian tanks that had come to support his battalion. Some 20 men of 4 Sikh, out of the 200, who were launched on 12 Sept were killed while some 50 managed to escape taking advantage of the sugarcane fields. When Anant Singh was repatriated to India after the Tashkent Agreement, Gen Harbaksh Singh received him personally and apologized for sending an already exhausted 4 Sikh on an impossible mission as they had underestimated the strength of Pakistan Army at Khem Karan. Moreover, Indian wireless discipline had not been particularly good and was intercepted by the 9 Signal Regiment of 1 Armoured Division.
Gen Tajindar Singh Shergil, then a Troop Leader of 9 Deccan Horse, and who too became a prisoner of 5 FF at Khem Karan, gives the credit to Lieutenant Khizar Ullah of 3 SP for taking Anant Singh as a POW.
According to him, Anant Singh saw the shapes of tanks nearby and persumed they were part of a squadron of 9 Deccan Horse that were to marry up with his battalion. Anant Singh walked to one of the tanks and seeing a young officer atop the engine deck asked him if this was this was the Deccan Horse. This officer was Lt Khizar Ullah, the former Raja of Relu in Kangra District whose family had migrated to Pakistan. The young officer whipped out his revolver and told Col Singh that this was 3rd S.P Leauger and that he was his prisoner.
The Col had no choice and handed over his belt and gun to Lt Khizar Ullah.