Sitting far away in the safety of his office in Islamabad, the Pakistani President, Ayub Khan, and his warmongering generals were shell-shocked. Many were twiddling their thumbs nervously. Even in their wildest dreams, the President had not thought that his pride and honour would be so brutally crushed by a handful of ill-equipped and underprepared Indian soldiers. The loss of Phillora and Sialkot were unthinkable and put the entire Pakistani Army in depression. News of mass casualties and the destruction of ninety Patton tanks had made their military a laughing stock among defence experts. Anticipating the worst, Ayub Khan rushed to the doors of the United Nations and looked for options, including recalling the fleet from Khem Karan. Simultaneously, in conversations with the American top brass, he pleaded for an early ceasefire.

On the Kashmir front, the scenario was quite different and much more favourable to the Pakistanis. On 1 August, its forces launched a full-scale offensive in Chhamb located in Akhnoor to cut off the main highway to the Valley. In the absence of much resistance from the Indian forces, the Pakistani Army took complete control. Comprising primarily Muslims, the Pakistani Army took it for granted that the Kashmiri Muslims would welcome them with open arms and facilitate their takeover. President Ayub Khan, on his part, even hoped that his forces would be able to take complete control of Akhnoor, allowing him to annex the entire Valley.

The Indian Army was taken by complete surprise. It took the forces some time to get their act together. Meanwhile, having taken Kashmiri Muslims’ help for granted, the Pakistani Army began celebrating their victory. But that was to be their undoing. Instead of joining hands with them, the Kashmiris played spoilsport and alerted the Indian Army. They gave away vital positions and plans and helped the Indian Army in devising strategies to launch a counter-attack. Being a hilly area, the Pakistanis had no Patton tanks to back them up, nor did they have the much-needed air force backup. On the contrary, the Pakistani Air Force wasn’t even informed by its own army of its intentions of occupying the Valley. And by the time its air force was alerted, it was too late.

On 5 August 1965, the Indian Army surrounded the intruders and engaged them in a fierce gun battle. This led to a complete disintegration of the Pakistani Army which scattered and ran helter-skelter, looking for escape routes. To complicate the matters further, the unorganized Pakistani Army soon found that its logistics support base had been cut off. The best option, therefore, was to run, and that’s what they did. Dropping their weapons, baggage, etc., they took whatever vehicles they could lay their hands on, including villagers’ bicycles, and ran towards the border. A large number of soldiers escaped the artillery barrage and made it to the border. Those who surrendered were taken in as prisoners of war.