No communal hatred during war times, recollect elderly living near Halwara

Emotional stress, fear, anticipation and sense of national unity dominated the memories about the Indo-Pak wars of some persons from this region situated in the proximity of a strategic installation of India, the Air Force station, Halwara.

Irrespective of their caste and community, these persons who had the seen the Indo-Pak wars of 1965 and 1971 experienced a range of emotions when they got to know about the nationwide civil defence mock drill scheduled to be held at 259 places in India on Wednesday, including Halwara village.

Octogenarian Rameshwar Dass recollects occasional hearing of air raid sirens and precautionary announcements broadcasted through public announcement systems installed at religious places of his native village Jandali Khurad about probable air attacks by the enemy fighter planes. “Though nothing untoward happened in the area during any of the Indo-Pak wars, we used to follow instructions given by our parents from time to time whenever there was an announcement in the village,” said Sharma.

Eightyfive-old Sukhdarshan Kaur narrates her experiences to her daughters-in-law, besides reminding her sons Jagjit Singh and Kuldeep Singh Jajjie about their role in collecting information about total blackout in their locality.

“While I used to get all window panes of our old house blackened to check any emission of light from the house, Jajjie and Kuldeep used to verify if there was complete blackout in the street during nights,” said Kaur. She recollected that her children were trained to prostrate in the open or stand in corners while facing the walls inside rooms whenever an air attack siren was heard.

Hari Chand, a retired municipal council employee, affirmed that the administration used to establish a counter for receiving emergency calls on telephone and raise an alarm for the public to follow standard guidelines of the administration.

“As the telephone was the only source of fastest transmission of information, we were advised to be vigilant about every ring on the telephone besides, verifying genuineness of the callers through a password code,” said Chand while recollecting that even answering nature’s call was considered gross negligence.

Septuagenarian Babu Khan turned emotional, recollecting that communal harmony was best exhibited during war periods when residents, including Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims, used to take shelter in foxholes dug in their compound on hearing the siren, warning of an air attack.

“As ours was a joint family and our compounds were very spacious, our parents had dug foxholes to be used for taking shelter in case of an attack threat. Caste, age and gender was no bar or choice for seeking shelter in those safety areas,” said Khan appreciating that nationalistic spirit eclipsed the communal hatred during war time then.

Ludhiana