A Great Escape from Karachi – And an untold story —- A Book Review
By
M.R. Narayan Swamy
Escape from Pakistan: The Untold Story of Jack Shea
Pakistan issued a warrant for the arrest of Frank Dewars after realizing that the unassuming Tamil-speaking First Secretary in the Indian High Commission in Karachi was actually a spymaster who played a key role in feeding top-secret information that caused Pakistan major setbacks in the 1965 war.
Knowing that Dewars would be tortured and jailed if not killed, the mission drew up an audacious plan to spirit him and his family to India – covertly. The diplomat who planned the meticulous escape was brutally assaulted in Karachi by Pakistani goons and left to die. He survived, miraculously, served his term in Karachi, played a pivotal role in the 1971 war against Pakistan and retired from the Indian Navy in 1976.
This book unveils that untold gripping story, authored by the late Commodore’s daughter, Debora Ann Shea. I finished the page-turner in one reading. And so will anyone who picks up a copy.
Dewars, from the Indian Police Service, was deputed to Pakistan before the 1965 war. He was a great asset in collecting information that kept the Indian forces a step ahead of Pakistan throughout the conflict. When Pakistan learnt about his role, they wanted to snatch him. On the Indian High Commissioner’s orders, Garnet Milton Shea – the Indian Naval Attache also known as Jack Shea – outlined an extremely complex operation.
Relying on Pakistanis who worked for the Indian intelligence, Dewars got into a jeep driven by an Indian, Prabhjyot, who could pass for a Pathan and spoke Urdu and Punjabi well to reach from Karachi to a village close to the Indian border, a distance of 200 km. If nothing went wrong, the journey would consume about six hours.
But this was the one and only chance to escape; there was no scope for failure. Dewars, who knew no Hindi or Punjabi, was given the identity of an Arab immigrant from Somalia (name Bashir Ali) who had been working for a Pakistani landlord tending to his sheep and goats. He was prepared for a cameral ride – for the final lap until he crossed over India.
Pakistani security guards failed to notice Dewars when he left the Indian mission crouched between the back and front seats of a car and covered with a blanket. He then got into a Willy’s Jeep which, driven by Prabhjoyt, began to pick up speed outside Karachi until police checking before the town of Malki forced them to take a detour through the desert.
The Jeep got bogged down in the sand, forcing the two to start a strenuous trek. Luck was on their side. A Pakistani villager passing that way on a camel gave them a lift as well as an invaluable night shelter and ultimately took them to the border town Baadin. There, a pre-arranged rendezvous with a pan shop owner led them to a toy shop where another Pakistani agent sent them to his home and told his son to guide them on camels towards the border.
Dewars was soon in India while Pakistan’s counterintelligence tightened the net around the Indian mission thinking the man was still inside!
Now Jack’s job was to facilitate the escape of the wanted diplomat’s family. Dewar’s wife, who worried over her missing husband and had no clue that he was already in India, and her children were told to pack up with just the bare essentials. They were told that with the war just over, New Delhi wanted all Indian families to leave Karachi one by one. Jack took them to the Karachi harbor, which he was familiar with, and told the family to board an Indian merchant ship. Their names were not recorded in the passenger manifest.
After 72 never-wracking hours, the family found itself on the Bombay port and, in Bollywood style, was received by none other than Dewars!
The Pakistanis were shell-shocked when they realized that both the quarry and his family had slipped away. Unable to digest the humiliation, the Pakistanis wrecked vengeance on Jack after finding out, through their moles, that he masterminded the great escape. On January 26, 1966, when Uma Bajpai, the Deputy High Commissioner of India, hosted a party in Karachi, four Pakistani thugs sneaked in as local helpers, spiked Jack’s drink and brutally assaulted him inside a toilet. His every conceivable bone was broken, causing him to spurt blood from his mouth. As he fell unconscious unable to take the physical torture, they carried him to the terrace and flung him two floors down and fled thinking he was dead.
At the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital, Karachi Jack required multiple surgeries. The probability of infection was very high due to extensive injuries. Divinity came to his rescue. He showed remarkable signs of improvement. He began to breathe normally after a while; gradually the concussion and hematoma subsided. It was a long stay in the hospital. On Day 30, he came out of the coma. Doctors called it a miracle. Finally, Jack’s pelvic girdle and the femur healed. But he suffered a noticeable limp that lasted a lifetime. He would also never be able to write again with his right hand.
After recovery, Jack spent one more year in Karachi with his family till his tenure ended in May 1967. After climbing up the professional ladder, he won the Ati Vishisht Sewa Medal from Indian President V.V. Giri on April 16, 1969. Present at the event was Dewars, now on the personal security of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He hugged Jack and said: “You saved me from certain death and my family from the torturous clutches of those brutes. We could have been languishing in hell, without recourse to any justice or mercy. You put your life on the line to save us. I am aware of the brutal vengeance they wreaked on you.”
Jack just smiled. “His eyes said it all. Given a chance, he would do it again… A quintessential ‘Fauji’. Jai Hindi!”
