Escape from Oblivion (The Story of a Pakistani Prisoner of War in India)

Ikram Sehgal, a Pakistan Army officer, became a Prisoner of War (POW) in India in peculiar circumstances after being handed over to the Indian Army following the 1971 rebellion in the then East Pakistan. Along with officers and other ranks of mostly non-Bengali origin, he was held in an Indian POW Camp that was established in April 1971, although, the Indo-Pak War that led to the disintegration of Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh, was not to break out until December 1971. These hundred or so POWs remained undeclared by India throughout 1971. Kept in solitary confinement, Sehgal escaped on the hundredth day of captivity, becoming the first ever Pakistan Army officer to successfully escape from an Indian POW Camp. Compiled from the original notes jotted down by the author during the period of his de-briefing on return to Pakistan, this fascinating book provides an insider’s account of conditions under Indian custody. It is a spellbinding and gripping tale of individual courage, of disparate friendships made in adverse circumstances, and of the will to survive.