New Delhi:
Only 12 hours had passed since the Tashkent Agreement file was signed and Lal Bahadur Shastri died. India’s second Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri died under mysterious circumstances on the night of 11 January 1966, this mystery still remains. Lal Bahadur Shastri went to Tashkent to sign the agreement to end the war with Pakistan President Ayub Khan. It is the capital of Uzbekistan, where the agreement between the two countries was signed.
‘I could not believe that Shastri ji is no more’
Journalist Kuldeep Nayyar also went to Tashkent with Lal Bahadur Shastri. He has written in his autobiography ‘Beyond the Lines – An Autobiography’, ‘That night I was having a bad dream, when someone knocked on my door. When I got up and opened the door, a woman standing in the corridor told me, your Prime Minister is not well. I wore my clothes and went in the car with the Indian officer to where Shastri was staying. When we reached there, we came to know that Shastri ji had passed away. I was shocked… I couldn’t believe that Shastri ji was no more. Just a few hours ago, Shastri ji was among us, signing the agreement.
‘The body had turned blue, there were cut marks’
Kuldeep Nayyar wrote in the book, ‘After the agreement, he died of a heart attack at 1.32 in the night. Shastri complained of chest pain at 1.25 pm, after which he fainted and died within 7 minutes. Before sleeping at night, Shastri ji was given milk by his personal assistant Ramnath. After this Shastri ji started walking for some time. After this he asked for water. By then his health had started deteriorating. He was having chest pain and his breathing was short. Shastri ji died within some time. Kuldeep Nayyar writes in the book, ‘When Shastri ji’s mortal remains reached India, it was lying blue, on which his wife Lalita Shastri had raised questions. Lalita Shastri had also asked that how did the cut marks appear on the body? It was also surprising that even the post-mortem of Lal Bahadur Shastri was not done in Tashkent and Delhi. The answer to this question has not been found even today.
India won the 1965 war under the leadership of Shastri ji.
Lal Bahadur Shastri, the second Prime Minister of the country and the leader who gave the slogan ‘Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan’, died on 11 January 1966. Shastri, famous for his clean image and simplicity, took over as Prime Minister on June 9, 1964 after the death of the first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. He remained the Prime Minister of the country for about 18 months. Under his leadership, India gave a crushing defeat to Pakistan in the 1965 war. He died under mysterious circumstances on the night of 11 January 1966 after signing an agreement to end the war with Pakistan President Ayub Khan in Tashkent. Lal Bahadur Shastri was born on 2 October 1904 in Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh.
