Roads to Delhi 289On February 13, Prem Sahgal had taken leave of Netaji in Rangoon
and moved north. He had seen tears flowing down the cheeks of his
supreme commander as he bade his erstwhile military secretary good-
bye. Sahgal assured his leader that he would be all right. By Febru-
ary 17, he had occupied defensive positions on the western slope of
Mount Popa. When Netaji arrived in Meiktila on February 21, the Brit-
ish were reported to be advancing from Nyaungu but the situation on
the front appeared confused. Shah Nawaz and Mehboob Ahmed pro-
ceeded to Mount Popa with Netaji’s instructions, hoping to bring back
accurate information. Netaji inspected the INA hospitals at Kalaw and
Taunggyi and arranged to remove them to Zeyawaddy, closer to Ran-
goon. On February 25, Shah Nawaz and Mehboob Ahmed returned to
Meiktila and pleaded with Netaji not to travel toward Mount Popa.
Finding him stubborn in his determination to risk the journey to Popa,
Major Rawat contrived to delay his departure. The morning of Febru-
ary 26 brought news that the British had reached Mahlaing—ten miles
north of Meiktila—and obstructed the roads between Meiktila and
Mandalay, as well as between Meiktila and Kyaukpadang. The supreme
commander of the INA was virtually trapped in Meiktila.^111
Bose and Shah Nawaz decided to break out of Meiktila and head
south toward Pyinmina. Shah Nawaz has described the scene:
Everyone looked cheerful. One thing was certain, the enemy would
never capture us alive. When we entered the car and started off, Netaji
was sitting with a loaded Tommy gun in his lap. Raju had two hand
grenades ready. The Japanese of fi cer was holding on to another Tommy
gun, and I had a loaded Bren gun in my hand. We were all ready to
open fire instantaneously. The Japanese of fi cer stood on the footboard
of the car to be on the lookout for enemy aircraft. Raju sat next to the
driver to locate any roadblocks put up by the enemy, while Netaji and I
sat at the back watching both sides of the road.No sooner had they reached the village of Yindaw, twenty miles south
of Meiktila, than enemy aircraft loaded with machine guns strafed the
village from the air. The planes did not hesitate to use ten- inch armor-
piercing cartridges meant for destroying heavy tanks and railway en-