Kulpreet Yadav’s Haji Pir chronicles the bravery of soldiers in the pivotal war battle of 1965

The Battle of Haji Pir: The Indian Army’s Cross-Border Surgical Strike

Author: Kulpreet Yadav

Publisher: Penguin

Pages: 257 + xx

Price: 399 rupees

Fifty-nine monsoons ago, India fought a bloody war with Pakistan, which had pushed some 30,000 infiltrators across the Ceasefire Line (now the Line of Control, or LoC) on August 5, 1965. These infiltrators were Pakistani soldiers in a secret military operation called “Gibraltar.” Their mission: to wrest Kashmir from India by fomenting an uprising in the state.

Operation Gibraltar was so secretive that, apart from Pakistan’s 12th Infantry Division, even its own army knew nothing about it.