669 Col Mahesh Chadha (Retd) IN June 1972, posted on the staff of the strike corps which had captured a vast territory in the Shakargarh bulge, the Chief of Staff tasked me with taking photographs of the entire area. Not that I was an established lensman, but such an expert was not available near Sambha (J&K) where the corps HQ was then located. It was the job of the Intelligence Branch, meant to collect, collate and disseminate information that in times to come would be useful to plan and execute operations. Off with a camera, binoculars, compass, maps and haversack meals, I was to pick up officers from the units deployed there to guide me through the safe passages as at many places mines which were laid during the war were still active. The Engineers had constructed a vast network of roads, tracks and laterals, calling these Sappers Highways. There were two axes — the eastern-southern and the western-southern — along which the two divisions of the strike corps had advanced and launched successful operations one after the other, striking deep into the hinterland of Pakistan.