The Pakistani flag seized by Indian Army during the 1965 war on display at the Know Your Army programme in Ranchi on Wednesday. Picture by Prashant Mitra

Ranchi, Jan. 7: One of the major crowd-pullers at the Know Your Army programme on Morabadi grounds was the seized Pakistani flag in torn condition.

The flag was seized by the 4 Sikh Regiment during the 1965 Indo-Pak war.

The inquisitiveness among visitors was evident from the fact that the framed Pakistani flag had become centre of attraction. Other popular stopovers were rocket launcher and medium machine gun, also seized in the 1965 war, which made people nostalgic.

Other attractions of the two-day exhibition, Know Your Army, being held at Military ground, Morabadi, were AK-47 rifles used to combat terrorists in the Mumbai terror attack and “Raksha” boat for flood relief operations in Madhepura district in Bihar.

“We feel so privileged to see this flag captured by our army. I am just visualising the moment when our jawans would have felt thrilled on seizing this flag. It’s a lifetime opportunity to see the flag and guns at such an exhibition. It has also improved the army image in the sense that the exhibition has brought us closer to the jawans, who sacrificed their lives for us,” said Manish Kumar, a second-year commerce student of St Xavier’s College.

Harjeet Singh from Sikh Regiment Centre, Ramgarh, who was seen apprising the visitors about the Pakistani flag and the seized rocket launcher during the war, said that the flag was in Sikh museum and one of the rarest seized items.

“It’s only during the exhibition, we try to display such items for common masses,” Singh said. Charanjit Singh, another army personnel from the regiment, said the medium machine gun was captured by the 4 Sikh Regiment in Barki, a town in Punjab.

The other attractions were 81mm mortar used in the Kargil war of 1999 and also in the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak war. “Three different types of bombs (highly explosive, destructive and illuminating) are put inside the mortar having a range of 5km. We also used this during insurgency operations,” said Joginder Singh, in charge of the kiosk.

Prakash Mishra, a visitor, was trying to hold the medium machine gun used in the Kargil war. “My God, it’s so heavy!” he exclaimed.