India, Dec 03 : As Prem Bhutani headed to watch the film Ikkis (“Twenty-One”), memories of the 1971 India-Pakistan war came flooding back like scenes from a movie. The film chronicles the extraordinary courage of 2nd-Lt Arun Khetarpal, a tank commander whose heroics became legendary.
Fifty-four years ago, Bhutani was a student at IIT Delhi, where one of his classmates was Mukesh Khetarpal, Arun’s brother. After Arun died on the battlefield at the age of 21, his classmates visited the family home in Naraina, Delhi, to pay their respects.
Arun’s family had migrated from Sargodha (now in Pakistan) following the Partition of 1947. He spent his early years in Delhi and attended St. Columba’s School. Mukesh Khetarpal recounted a cold evening in 1971, just before Arun left for the war. Their mother, Maheshwari Devi, told him at the dinner table, “Fight like a lion, Arun. Do not return like a coward.” Arun smiled and departed by the Jammu-Tawi Express for the front.
On the battlefield, Khetarpal commanded his tank with unmatched valor, destroying 10 Pakistani tanks before succumbing to his injuries. For his extraordinary bravery against overwhelming odds, he was posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra (PVC), India’s highest wartime gallantry award. His mother received the honour from President V.V. Giri during the 1972 Republic Day parade.
Khetarpal’s legacy is immortalised in Delhi with a bronze statue at the National War Memorial near India Gate, and Noida’s Arun Vihar is named in his honour.
Arun hailed from a family with a rich military tradition. His father, Brigadier M.L. Khetarpal, served in the Indian Army’s Corps of Engineers during the 1971 war, while his grandfather fought in the British army in World War I, and his great-grandfather served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s army.
In 2001, Brig. Khetarpal visited Pakistan and met Brigadier Khwaja Mohammad Nasir of Pakistan’s 13 Lancers, who revealed that it was his fire that destroyed Arun’s tank. Yet he praised Arun’s bravery, saying, “Your son was very brave; he was the reason for our defeat… He stood like an unbreakable rock.”
Bhutani reflected, “His bravery gave the Khetarpal family, us IITians, and India a sense of intense pride and patriotism. I hope all who watch Ikkis remember how a 21-year-old Delhi lad transformed himself into a lion, respected even by the enemy.”