New Delhi, May 31: Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee today directed army headquarters to probe the allegation by Gohar Ayub Khan, former Pakistan foreign minister, that the Indian Army’s war plans for 1965 were sold by a brigadier for Rs 20,000.

In an interview to The Telegraph, Gohar Ayub said his father had accessed the plans for the 1965 war from a brigadier of the Indian Army’s DMO in 1957.

The Telegraph contacted army headquarters this evening to trace the name of the brigadier who may have been the Director of Military Operations in 1957. But army headquarters sources said it was after working hours and “the military operations office is locked”.

Gohar Ayub is essentially stating that plans for the war were drawn up by India at least eight years before the event. Army sources say this is a flawed version.

Between 1957 and 1965, the Indian Army had recast its entire order of battle in the wake of the 1962 debacle in the war against China.

Army headquarters was a aflutter today after the allegation by Gohar Ayub, with Chief of Army Staff General Joginder Jaswant Singh summoning the Director General of Military Operations (DGMO), Lt General Madan Gopal and the Director General of Military Intelligence, Lt General Deepak Summanwar, for confabulations on what could have transpired 40 years ago.

The immediate response was to check the board in the DGMO’s office that lists the names and ranks of all officers who held the post four decades ago.

In 1965, the Directorate of Military Operations (DMO, later upgraded to DGMO) was headed by two brigadiers, both now dead: Brigadier (later Lt General) N.C. Rawlley, whose wife, the golfer Sita Rawlley is probably better known (she is now on a wheelchair), and Brig (later Major General) Narinder Singh.

“Gohar Ayub is indulging in a cheap publicity gimmick,” says military historian and veteran of the 1965 war, Lt General (retired) Matthew Thomas. “It is sad that such a thing should happen at this juncture of the peace process and even Advani is there and is making conciliatory noises, including what looks to me like an apology for the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992.”

Gen Thomas was more or less reflecting the response of army headquarters to Gohar Ayub’s fantastic claim.

In Karwar where he was inaugurating a naval base, Pranab Mukherjee said: “It is difficult to believe that an Indian brigadier would divulge military secrets for money. We don’t know whether the brigadier is still alive or dead.” Gohar Ayub claims he is alive.