It has been 50 years since Havildar Naliath Mathai Thomas died in the line of duty during the 1965 Indo-Pak War. But for his siblings the pain of losing their eldest brother is still raw. Even today Naliath Mathiri Baby, Havildar Thomas’ sister chokes when she talks about her brother. She remembers that evening in Mumbai, 50 years ago, when her brother, Abraham Naliath, gave her0 the news of their brother’s death. “Both of us were working in Mumbai and my brother would pick me up every day. On our walk back he told me about it.” The siblings returned home to Thiruvankulam immediately.She also remembers her shell-shocked mother, frozen like a statue upon hearing the news every soldier’s family dreads. Havildar Thomas fell to Pakistani shelling in the Chamb-Jaurian sector in Jammu and Kashmir during the war.
He, incidentally, spent the last moments of his life with two Malayalis; one of who was from his native Thiruvankulam, Naik M.A. Bhaskaran Nair, then a fresh 23 year-old recruit with a year’s experience. Today at 73, Naik Bhaskaran’s memory might not be the same, but that September evening he remembers vividly.
The 161 Artillery Regiment, to which both Havildar Thomas and Naik Bhaskaran belonged, was waiting in Jalandhar, Punjab, for orders to move. The orders to move to the Chamb-Jaurian sector. It came late one evening.
“We had to travel by night, sans headlights – in absolute darkness. We reached early next morning. Our location was a dried-up river bed; digging trenches and bunkers was tough as there were white boulders everywhere. We also had to dig the gun pits (pits for artillery guns). We were back-up for the infantry. When we got there we saw corpses everywhere – of our men and civilians too. The Pakistanis were on an elevated position which made us vulnerable.”
Typically a gun is placed in a gun pit and the gunners who operate it (generally three) dig trenches next to it and are positioned there. The dimensions of trenches vary; there are two-men and three men trenches. Going by Naik Bhaskaran’s account the trenches they dug were two-men trenches – approximately 3ft long, a foot-and-a-half wide and four-and-a-half ft deep.
Havildar Thomas as senior was a stickler for rules and discipline. “At one point there were three of us in the trench, Thomas Sir said it was against the rules and got out to go to the other one. The minute he moved towards the other trench a shell landed on him. One minute he was there and the next he was gone. There was nothing left of him. We lost many colleagues; the shells kept coming. Our battalion lost around 40 soldiers,” says Bhaskaran. Following the casualties the troops were moved to another location. “The barracks were empty…we had lost so many.”
Possibly due to the manner in which Havildar Thomas was killed, his family was told that his body was not ‘retrieved’. The family only recently learnt how he died when Naik Bhaskaran told the Thiruvankulam Public Library office bearers about it. The library organised a memorial program honouring army veterans especially thosewho of the 1965 war and Havildar Thomas.
The family was initially shocked. “It is for the best we didn’t know. In the end we lost our dear brother. Possibly our mother wouldn’t have been able to take it had she known how he died,” says septuagenarian Baby. Soldiers were required to wear identity discs identifying their religion among other things. The religion is required in order to complete their last rites according to their faith. In Havildar Thomas’ case it didn’t matter.
The ‘remains’ the family got were his belongings such as his box and watch. Baby proudly shows the badge of sacrifice and the scroll of honour issued by the Army in 1999 recognising Havildar Thomas’ sacrifice.
Memories mingled with tears keep tumbling out. While Baby remembers her brother; for Bhaskaran Nair it is a senior colleague, the Battery Quarter Master Havildar, who gave him a bit more ration. “I didn’t know him as he had left this place long back. I would have been very young when he left to join the Army,” says Bhaskaran.
A voracious reader, Thomas was keen on a college education, but couldn’t as his SSLC marks weren’t enough for an admission. Baby says, “He was disappointed but his mind was made up on joining the army. He was passionate about it. He told us how he wasn’t taken for a higher post due to his lack of educational qualifications.”
In 1953, Havildar Thomas joined the Indian Army in the Artillery regiment as a gunner. He had seen action in the 1962 Indo-China War; he kept it from his mother as he did not want her to worry. When the 1965 war broke out, the 31 year-old was a few months away from completing his bond. His mother was getting set to look for a bride for him once he returned; a return which never happened.
A student of history, Baby finds comfort in the fact that her brother gave up his life for the country. She and her other siblings are reconciled with the manner of his death and not being able to see him one last time. The family has built a tomb at the Kandanad St. Mary’s Church cemetery. “He died for his country, it was a noble death and we are proud of his martyrdom,” says Baby.
