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Field Marshal Manekshaw admitted to Army Hospital

    New Delhi: Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, who led India to its greatest military victory in the 1971 war against Pakistan, has been admitted to the intensive care unit of the Army's specialised Research and Referral Hospital here for treatment of a serious pneumonic ailment. Manekshaw was flown in from his home in Wellington, Tamil Nadu, early today. "The Field Marshall has been admitted in the Intensive Care Unit, where a specialised team of doctors is trying to stabilise his conditions," hospital sources said. Ninety-one year old Manekshaw is also suffering from renal failure and a lung infection. The field marshal, who lives alone with his faithful Gurkha retainers at his house in the Nilgiris, was admitted to a hospital in Wellington last week.

     The senior most officer in the Indian Army, Manekshaw - who was nicknamed 'Sam Bahadur' by the Gurkha soldiers has been active even at his advanced age and joined the first conclave of all surviving Indian Army chiefs in October last year. Born at Amritsar April 3, 1914, Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw served as the country's eighth army chief between June 1969 and January 1973. He was given the rank of field marshal Jan 1, 1973, a fortnight before he retired. He led India to victory in the 1971 war that ended with the surrender of over 90,000 Pakistani soldiers and the creation of Bangladesh from erstwhile East Pakistan. He was among the first batch of cadets to pass out of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in October 1934 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the British Indian Army. Decorated with the Military Cross for gallantry in Burma during World War II, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1968 for his role in countering the tribal insurgency in Nagaland. He was later awarded the Padma Vibhushan in 1972.