Our forces have always given it their all to protect and safeguard the country. I would like to introduce to you a valiant officer of the air force Man Mohan Lowe as we prepare to celebrate our Independence Day. His is a saga of grit and hard work with a generous dose of God’s grace. He was born in Lahore and migrated to Shimla, perforce due to partition, at the age of 13. His elder brother was a test pilot. Following in his footsteps he too chose to join the airforce after college at the age of 21.
Little did he know that he would be returning to Pakistan one day but as a prisoner of war. The air force did not participate in the ‘62 war with China but in ‘65 Mr. Lowe saw action. On his 6th mission to Sargodha on the 21st of December, he was shot down. With his fuel tank leaking, he told his navigator to parachute down. To save on fuel he took the plane up, was consequently spotted on radar and a missile was aimed at him. A wing of the plane was blown off and he had no option but to eject.
He had dived down, thinking he was close to the border and would be in India but unfortunately, he was captured by the Pakistani forces and taken to Peshawar. In captivity, he was not given proper food nor allowed to sleep peacefully but his captors were humane otherwise.
Red Cross did not announce his capture for some reason and the family was told that Mr Lowe was missing, believed killed. Even a pension was given to them.
Mrs. Lowe recounted that planes for missions took off from Agra and the air force wives used to count how many took off and how many came back. That day she knew that all was not well as 4 took off but only 3 returned.
On the 10th of January, following the Tashkent meeting, it was decided to have an exchange of pilot POWs. There were 5 Pakistanis and 7 Indians and Mr. Lowe was among them.
After 17 years in the Air Force, he joined Air India, flying all over the world from Bombay. Later he was amongst the few chosen ones to become an instructor of 707s. He retired in ‘92 and now lives in Silver Oaks.
