The importance of Landi Khana-2

Here are a few other pictures of Landi Khana station when it was open in 1926-32:

Unlike now, there are some fortified compounds near the station as well as local habitation.

We also look at the Pakistan Railways timetable of  November 1972. It was still officially called the Pakistan Western Railway. (There is a reason for this, as Bangladesh (former East Pakistan) was not recognized by “West Pakistan” until 1974).

This also shows the timetables of three of the narrow gauge lines which were all closed by the early 90s.

The line to Landi Kotal now had services only on Sunday, still with the hard-working HGS locos. Sometimes the SGS 0-6-0s were also seen there.

Now we return to the India-Pakistan war of 1971 which resulted in the liberation of Bangladesh. While most of the action took place in what was then called East Pakistan, there were also significant military operations in the west involving the armies, navies and air forces of the two countries.

There were a significant number of POWs captured on both sides. The Indian army officers and other ranks were imprisoned at Lyallpur (now Faisalabad), while the relatively smaller number of 12 IAF officers were sent to a PAF prison at Rawalpindi.

The story of the escape has been covered in several books, such as:

“Death Wasn’t Painful”, by DS Jafa (who was one of the POWs, though not one of the three escapees)

“Four Miles to Freedom”, by Faith Johnston (a journalist who had access to the concerned persons in later years).

and an appendix in “My Years with the IAF” by Air Chief Marshal PC Lal, which is written by another escapee Harish Sinhji.

These are all available from Amazon in and other Amazons.

They are all worth reading, although the second one may be a little better written.

I am not going to recount the full details of the story, which you can read in the books mentioned above. There is also a film “The Great Indian Escape” which is being released in October 2019.

The three who escaped were :

Flight Lieutenant Dilip Parulkar

Flight Lieutenant MS Grewal, and

Flight Lieutenant Harish Sinhji

The actual escape from the prison was not too difficult. The question was how to get back to India. A basic map of the northern half of Pakistan may help:

If you are trying to get from Rawalpindi to India, you have to cross through a long stretch of relatively populated areas and then the well-guarded borders with large defensive positions on both sides. Even in August 1972 (long after the cease-fire) it would be extremely dangerous.

But reaching the Afghan border was simpler. The distance from Rawalpindi to the border crossing at Torkham (beyond Landi Kotal) was considerably less. Then, unlike now, Afghanistan was a relatively peaceful country and it would not have been a major problem to contact the Indian embassy in Kabul or other sources once beyond the border.

So the western route it was. The only problem is that no one was familiar with the exact route to the border. While the IAF had struck as far as Peshawar, no one had a clear idea of how to get to the border from there.

Help came in the form of a variety of books which were sent to them from the stocks of various Pakistani cantonments. One of them was “Murray’s Guide to India” which was probably from the 1920s or the 1930s. This used to be the standard handbook for traveling Brits in India during the Raj, and was packed with exquisite details and maps.

I could not locate the exact edition which the POWs used, but it may have had maps like this one from an earlier edition in 1903:

At that time the railway had ended at Jamrud.

Perhaps a good map would have been like this (an extract from the official Indian Railway map of 1933):

In this map Landi Khana is shown as the terminus, as it was until 1932.

Thus, the escapees reasoned, they should make their way to Peshawar and then to Landi Khana which was only about a mile from the border. They were to pose as PAF officers on holiday.

From Harish’s account:

The escape on the night of 12 August 1972 initially went like clockwork. They left through a tunnel to the adjacent road at about 00.30 on the 13th. In a short while they found a Peshawar-bound bus, which reached its destination by dawn. By 06.00 they had got to Jamrud, and then to the fort which is known as the gateway to the Khyber. A friendly local helped them to get on a bus to Landi Kotal, which was effectively the last town in Pakistan. It was then 09.30, nine hours after leaving the camp.

Continuing with their plan, they enquired about transport to Landi Khana which was about four miles ahead. Many of the locals were puzzled, as no one had any reason to go there. Finally they got an offer for a taxi. By then they had aroused a lot of curiosity.

The local Tehsildar’s clerk  came up and started questioning them. What followed is summarized here in an extract from Jafa’s book:

To cut a long story short, they were taken into custody. They were soon on their way back to the prison at Rawalpindi. If only they had known better than to ask for a long-vanished place……

The IAF officers were then sent to the larger and more secure camp at Lyallpur where the 500-odd Army prisoners were already housed. Ultimately all of them were repatriated in early December 1972 after spending almost a year in captivity.

However, if they had kept quiet and somehow made their way to the lightly-guarded border 4-5 miles away, they should have been able to enter Afghanistan and ultimately return to India. Or maybe not, since the people of Landi Kotal were familiar with stranded Bangladeshis trying to leave Pakistan by the same route.

Perhaps today’s IAF pilots have been briefed better. Wing Commander Abhinandan did not have time to plan an escape, which would have been almost impossible as he was the lone Indian prisoner at the time.

Quiz answers (29 Sep)

1. Why did Morarji Desai celebrate his first birthday when he was eight years old?

He was born on Feb 29, 1896. Thus his birthday appears only in leap years. There is also a rule that a century year such as 1900 is a leap year only if it is divisible by 400. Thus he saw Feb 29 only in 1904, when he was 8 years old.

2. There was a West Indies cricketer named Sewnarine Chattergoon. What would the original first name and second name be if his family had remained in India?

Sewnarine = Shivnarain is simple enough. Chattergoon is derived from Shatrughan, according to a Trinidadian friend of Indian ancestry.

3. Which famous American writer has a close connection with Halley’s Comet?

Arthur Hailey was a nice guess. However, the answer is:

(This used to appear on US aerograms some years ago).

4. Which American President has lived the longest?

Jimmy Carter, who will celebrate his 95th birthday on Oct 1.

Earlier this year he overtook George Bush (Sr) who passed away last year at 94+.

5. Which presently famous town in Pakistan was a part of Oman until 1957?

Gwadar. See more details here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwadar#Omani_rule

6. What does Mukesh Ambani have in common with British politician Keith Vaz?

They were both born in Aden, then a British colony and now a part of Yemen. There used to be a sizeable Indian population there.

7. You have heard of Christ and Antichrist. Which state in India has an (almost) anti version in the form of another country?

Goa and Antigua (strictly, Antigua and Barbuda).

8. The Karakoram Highway does not pass through the Karakoram Pass. Which pass does it go through?

The Khunjerab Pass. See this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karakoram_Highway

9. Which popular German band had a name which is the German for “power station”?

Kraftwerk (known for electronic music since the 1970s)

10. Back to 1. Morarjibhai was not the longest lived PM of India. Who was?

Remember that Gulzarilal Nanda does appear in the list of Indian prime ministers.

See this chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prime_ministers_of_India

Both Morarji Desai and Gulzarilal Nanda crossed 99. If you look at their individual articles, you can see that the latter lived for 99/06/12, overtaking the former who reached 99/01/13. Manmohan Singh is a youngster who has just celebrated his 87th birthday. Next in line is HD Deve Gowda who is 86+. AB Vajpayee crossed 93.

11. The only non-human ape native to India is the Hoolock gibbon. How did it get this name?

The official answer appears to be that this is the Assamese name for it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoolock_gibbon

However, other sources mention that this is related to the sound they make. Google for audio/video of the animal and decide.

If you have heard of the Rafflesia and Russell’s Viper, you would be excused for thinking that it was discovered by an Englishman named Hoolock (as in Jackson Pollock and Shaun Pollock).

 

 

The importance of Landi Khana-1

You would have heard of Landi Kotal, long known as the terminus of the Khyber Railway and the main cantonment guarding the head of the pass.

Landi Khana is not so well known. We first look at a detailed map of the Khyber Railway, which featured in an article by Victor Bayley and Gordon Hearn, the men most responsible for the construction of the line:

This lists all the stations on the line. Most of them were not shown in timetables.

The line was completed up to Landi Kotal in 1925 and to Landi Khana in 1926. Actually the line (or at least the embankment) was built up to a point right on the border. This point is mentioned as Torra Tigga Nala in contemporary accounts, though it is unclear what exactly it was (A station? or siding? or no track at all?)

Trains ran all the way up to Landi Khana in the first few years. Then the King of Afghanistan “requested” the Indian government to close the last stretch of the line. So no trains ran beyond Landi Kotal since 1932.

Here we see the 1930 NWR timetable for the line going all the way to Landi Khana:

My old friends from Dehradun would note the passenger train connecting Peshawar Cantt with that city. Coming to the point, we see from the small print that the trains ran between Landi Khana and Peshawar twice a week, and started from Landi Kotal on the other five days. This was the peak traffic for this line; by the time regular services ceased in 1984 the train ran up to Landi Kotal only once a week.

In the reverse direction, we see the same pattern, except that on Sundays the train left Peshawar later to provide a connection with the Frontier Mail and ran up to Landi Kotal.

Timetables in later years mentioned that “Passports will be examined at Jamrud”, meaning that you needed a passport to travel into the tribal territory where the British government had limited powers. However (as my father recounted), tourists from other parts of India could travel up to Jamrud, probably have their picture taken there, and say that they had visited the Khyber.

This is a picture of Landi Khana station (which obviously was taken between 1926 and 1932):

Note the Gurumukhi script. And the ever-reliable HGS locos which tackled the Khyber and Bolan passes without much fuss.

There appears to have been a small military outpost here, but it must have closed long ago. Which is why many people (even those presently living in Pakistan) do not know of its existence. As we will see, the remnants of this station still stand but there does not seem to be anything around it. The local villagers still use water from the water pipes laid in the 1920s for watering engines.

You may find it interesting to watch this 9-minute video (entirely in Urdu) from 2017 to see this place as a sideline to a trip up to the Afghan border:

Note the Gurumukhi sign which no one has bothered to remove yet.

One of the places they passed was this station which was one of the stops on the excursion trains which ran until the floods wrecked the line in 2008.

Here another sign in Gurumukhi script still survives, unlike this one from pre-partition Lahore:

If you approached the Afghan border, you would see this sign if you tried to cross anywhere except the official route:

And if you did succeed in crossing, you could look back and see this:

It should not be difficult to understand what P, J and LKL were. In those days all distances were measured in miles.

Now, you may say, you have told us all about a corner of Pakistan so obscure that few Pakistanis (leave alone Indians) have heard of it. Why is it important?

The answer is: It was important to know about it if you were an Indian POW in Pakistan in 1972.

To be continued.

Cricket Obituaries-2018

Here is a list of prominent cricketers who passed away in 2018. Apart from male Test players who are covered in full, other categories covered here would be female international players, ODI and T20I players, Test umpires, administrators and major domestic players. The last two categories are subjective, depending largely on whether the compiler has heard of them earlier.

This is delayed until the end of September 2019 as some deaths are reported late-sometimes even years later for lesser-known players.

Information is summarized from the obituaries in Cricinfo and Cricketarchive.

Here is a note about Bevan Congdon: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/bevan-congdon-r-i-p-and-his-indian-connection/

Hamilton Masakadza at Hamilton

Today (Sep 20) marked the last international appearance of Hamilton Masakadza, who captained Zimbabwe in this T20I match.

As you can see, he played a major role in the victory:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/19449/scorecard/1197144/afghanistan-vs-zimbabwe-5th-match-bangladesh-twenty20-tri-series

This was Zimbabwe’s first T20I victory against Afghanistan.

More details about his career:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/zimbabwe/content/player/55608.html

He made his debut in 2001. At that time he was a little short of his 18th birthday, and was then the youngest to make a century on debut. Later this record was taken by M Ashraful.

He has played in 38 Tests, 209 ODIs and 66 T20Is.

He played only one Test in New Zealand, which was not at Hamilton.

His ODI career was somewhat more satisfactory, as he did play one ODI at Hamilton during the 2015 World Cup. While Zimbabwe did lose to South Africa, he was top scorer with 80:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8039/scorecard/656403/south-africa-vs-zimbabwe-3rd-match-pool-b-icc-cricket-world-cup-2014-15

He also played precisely one T20I at Hamilton in 2012. Here Zimbabwe lost to New Zealand, though he did score a fifty:

https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/12620/scorecard/520596/new-zealand-vs-zimbabwe-2nd-t20i-zimbabwe-tour-of-new-zealand-2011-12

We now turn to his brothers who also played for Zimbabwe.

Shingirai Winston Masakadza played in 5 Tests, 16 ODIs and 7 T20Is. While he did not have a city in his name, he did play one T20I at Hamilton.

Then came Wellington Pedzisai Masakadza . He played one Test, 17 ODIs and 9 T20Is. Let us see if he got to play at Wellington.

However, none of his matches were in New Zealand.

 

A new plinthed loco in Chandigarh

Our friend Dr Dheeraj Sanghi, currently Director of the Punjab Engineering College at Chandigarh, informed us of this plinthed loco in the campus.

Also this one from Google Maps, thanks to Mayur Nandu:

There is nothing about this location on the net. The only thing we know is that it is of  class EE and has number 5.

From  “Indian Locomotives Part 2 – Metre Gauge 1872-1940” by Hugh Hughes we find that it is a metre gauge 2-4-0 (with tender) which was supplied to the Jodhpur Bikaner Railway in 1891. It was manufactured by Dubs & Co, Glasgow.  Some of the locos of this class were built by Neilson & Co, Glasgow in 1894.

This particular loco was among those transferred to the Bikaner State Railway in 1924 when it was separated from the Jodhpur Bikaner Railway. It was taken out of service before renumbering was done in 1957. Perhaps it served on the MG section of the Northern Railway.

The Bikaner State Railway extended up to Bathinda. Metre gauge continued beyond Bathinda to Kot Kapura and Fazilka initially on the BB & CI Rly. This section was transferred to the NR.

For a short time the metre gauge extended up to Ferozepur. After that, Kot Kapura was the northern limit of metre gauge in the IR network.

Here is a picture from Hughes’s book showing a loco of this class:

And some further details:

Important events on September 17

To begin with, Mallika Sherawat will sing:

Which was inspired by this:

 

Meanwhile, here are some other things which happened on September 17:

1908: The first ever fatal plane crash, though Orville Wright survived

1939: The USSR invades Poland, after Germany had occupied most of it

1940: Hitler decides to postpone the invasion of Britain

1948: The Nizam of Hyderabad decides to join the Indian Union

1954: “Lord of the Flies” is published

1978: The Camp David accords are signed

1983: Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America

2011: The “Occupy Wall Street” movement starts

Some people born on September 17:

1859: Billy the Kid

1879: Periyar EV Ramaswamy

1915: MF Hussain

1930: Lalgudi Jayaraman

1950: Narendra Modi

1986: R Ashwin (cricketer)

 

 

 

The Ashes since 1970

So the 2019 series was drawn 2-2, and Australia retained the Ashes which they held since winning the 2017-18 series.

Here we look at the history of the Ashes since the 1970-71 series, when England won the Ashes after a long gap-Australia had held them since 1958-59 so they were away from England throughout the 1960s. There were also longish droughts for England in the early 1920s and from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s.

Similarly, Australia had held the Ashes from 1989 to 2005, so the 1990s also passed without England getting hold of them. However, Australia has had the better of the contests since then (especially in Australia).

A quick look at the list shows some captains who won the Ashes on two or more occasions, including Ian Chappell (2), Brearley (3), Border (3), Taylor (3), S Waugh (2), Strauss (2) and Cook (2).

Those who have lost the Ashes on two or more occasions are Border (3), Gooch (2), Atherton (2), Hussain (2), Ponting (3), Clarke (2) and Root (2).

Bypasses of the Indian Railways

Many important stations of the Indian Railways have bypasses. These are used to reduce congestion, and especially where a reversal is eliminated.

While some are used mainly by goods trains, there is an increasing trend for more large junctions to be bypassed. In most cases a smaller station nearby is used as the “proxy” for long-distance trains to stop. Examples are Perambur for a few trains which skip MAS, Sevagram for Wardha Jn, Uslapur for Bilaspur, Pathankot Cantt (ex Chakki Bank) for Pathankot.

Here is a pdf file for all of the bypassed stations which I could think of. Additions and corrections are welcome.

Let us not consider “area bypasses” such as Vasai Road-Panvel or Gudur-Renigunta-Katpadi or Kharagpur-Asansol.

Bypasses on IR1

Perhaps we can think of a few more places where bypasses would be useful, such as Sawai Madhopur.

Trivia: the first custom-built bypass was probably the one at Shoranur which was commissioned in the early 1940s. Others which came up over the years due to realignments etc would be Allahabad-Chheoki and Podanur, (Yes, I know that the lines around Coimbatore have a complex history).

The best tailenders in Tests

Having studied the Indian tailenders here , we take a look at Test batsmen from 8 to 12 (!) in all Tests.

Minimum 20 innings, average 25.00

Some of the players here also batted at 7 or higher. Jadeja’s only century and some of Kapil’s centuries came that way.

This list is headed by the relatively lesser known JDC Goddard who was the West Indies captain during the 1948-49 tour of India and the epochal 1950 tour of England.

The current players include (in descending order) Mahmudullah, Jadeja, JO Holder and Ashwin.

As most of us would be more familiar with recent players, we repeat the above exercise for players from 2000 onwards:

Minimum 20 innings, average 20.00 after 01 Jan 2000

Here, only performances after 1 Jan 2000 are included. So the earlier careers of a few trans-millenials such as Boucher, Vettori, Pollock and Streak are not included here.

Here, Boucher is followed by the already forgotten MD Craig, Mahmudullah, Prior and Jadeja. Those currently playing include Mahmudullah, Jadeja, Holder and Ashwin.

Vettori has the most centuries (5) and 50+ scores (20). In contrast, Australia’s NM Hauritz has only one fifty but still manages a batting average of above 20. Similarly for SA’s AJ Hall and England’s TT Bresnan with two fifties apiece.

More on concentration camps

There is now talk of large-scale detention camps in various parts of India, like here:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/assam-india-detention-camps-bangladesh-nrc-list-a9099251.html

which is uncomfortably close to places like this:

This sign was not only at Auschwitz, but at several similar camps.

And who invented the idea of concentration camps? Not Hitler and his pals.

This little video explains further (though you can always look up further references about the conduct of the Boer War).

India’s best tailenders

Ishant Sharma’s heroics and his maiden Test fifty reminded us of the importance of having tailenders who can score some runs. Or, failing that, at least stay around long enough for other batsmen to score some more runs. Ishant was perhaps more of the second type.

We have a quick look at the best performers at 8-11 in the three formats.

For Tests and ODIs  a cutoff of 20 innings is used. For T20Is it is 10 innings.

Test batting averages at 8-11:

RA Jadeja’s average is now above Kapil Dev’s. Remember that both of them and a few others like Nadkarni scored centuries up to No 7 as well.

Kapil, Ashwin and Harbhajan have two centuries here. Others with centuries are Kirmani, IK Pathan, Kumble and Agarkar.

Here Agarkar has the lowest average by a century-maker and Ishant the lowest by a fifty-maker.

The lowest average here is by Maninder Singh, followed by Chandrashekhar and Doshi which most would have guessed.

In ODIs, we have:

The highest averages are by Pathan and Chetan Sharma. Sharma has scored a century batting lower.

Pathan and Agarkar are the only ones here with 2 fifties. The lowest average by a fifty-scorer is by Praveen Kumar.

The lowest average is by Sreesanth, followed by Ishant Sharma and Nehra.

For T20Is, no one has 20 innings so we take the cutoff of 10 innings instead.

Ashwin and Harbhajan are the only ones who qualify here. Neither has scored a fifty.