1948. It was a time when Hyderabad State was looking for all the military help it could get. Mir Laik Ali, the affluent Prime Minister of Hyderabad, had engaged the services of Australian mercenary Sidney Cotton to fly to Pakistan and secure a large cache of arms for the Hyderabad State Forces. It was around the same time that a lesser-known, but mysterious character, which the then Military Government of Hyderabad described as having “caused considerable havoc and worry to the State”, surfaced. The man was Capt. H.G. Reynolds, going by the alias Capt. Haroon Rashid Ghazi. What ensued were stories of attempts at espionage, gun-running, and even fears of the government dealing with an agent playing all sides.
Archival records show that it was following Operation Polo that the Military Government of Hyderabad found itself engaged in deliberations regarding the fate of the captain. Their discussions revolved around his background, how to detain him and his excesses whilst in service, both of which had become a source of concern, even as they sought to uncover his loyalties.
The captain was Anglo-Burmese but took on a Muslim name. “It has been established that this officer was a European by nationality and masquerading as a Muslim,” an official document shows, and proceeds to note that “he made several visits to Pakistan in connection with gun running. He carried on anti-Indian activities and other intrigues against States.”
The Special Branch, CID, wrote to the Private Secretary of the then Home Minister. The captain, it appears, was a decorated officer, it states. “He is said to have received his military training at the Officers’ School, Burma. After that, he joined Chin Levies (Guerilla Forces) in Burma and was awarded the Military Cross,” the correspondence notes.
After working here, the captain found his way to India in 1939 and joined the Indian Army. This is when the streak of opportunism caught the authorities’ attention. Documents show that it was during the communal conflagration in 1946, at a time he was serving in the army, his “excesses” in Barrackpore in West Bengal came to light, and he was detained at Fort Williams, only to be released a year-and-a-half later in May 1948.
Two months later, a train came to a grinding halt at Nampally station, and the captain disembarked. He then found his way to the army headquarters and submitted his application for employment. While he claimed that his papers were taken from his possession by the Indian army, he asserted to have worked in intelligence gathering and went ahead to display his alleged loyalty to the Hyderabad State. After being absorbed into Hyderabad’s army, he found himself dealing with intelligence reports.
Like the Indians, the Nizam’s government too, found Capt. Reynolds dangerous. In a quirk of fate, he claimed to have found a dossier on none other than himself. The Hyderabad State Government, in the dossier, apprehended that there was a possibility that the captain was spying for India. Interestingly, the Indian Government too, post-Independence, in 1950, would entertain apprehensions that he could have been a Pakistani spy. Either that, or he would join the Communists which the then government treated as terrorists.
The CID, describing him as an opportunist, as is the nature of mercenaries, would prove to be true. Documents drafted after his interrogation by Narendra Sinha, Dy Superintendent of Police, Crime, Branch, CID show that Capt. Reynolds or Capt. Ghazi, depending on who they thought he was, while apparently gun-running for Hyderabad, was stranded in Pakistan and later arrested. Here, he professed his adherence to the faith: “It was the only way I could get my release”. Exactly a year later, and with a set of instructions on espionage and sabotage, he would return to India. But, no sooner than he arrived in India, in the interest of self-preservation, “my desire to serve India”. Five months later, he was thrown at the Warangal Central Prison in solitary confinement.
Documents show that the Hyderabad military government exercised caution as regards his correspondence with Major General Syed Ahmed El Idroos, who had voluntarily turned in the letter, and thought the Captain was being vindictive. But, on the other hand, took it seriously given the fact that it listed several names in connection with Sidney Cotton’s flights to secure arms for Hyderabad as well as other connected events.
While in solitary confinement, Capt. Reynolds wrote to a lady friend living in Jubilee Hills, informing her of his incarceration, solitude and boredom, asking her to “love him a little”. “Well sweet, stay out of politics; love me a little, and correspond of you care to. I shall slide into the dark of whispered peace only to waken when dawn whitens the sky,” he wrote. It is unclear if he ever received a reply.
An estimate of airfare to Rangoon to deport the captain to Burma was sought from G Raghunathmull Bank Ltd, which was merged with Canara Bank in 1961. The Hyderabad Military Government’s vexation with Capt. H.G. Reynolds alias Capt. Haroon Rashid Ghazi came to an end after he was put on the steamship ‘Englestan’ on May 23, 1952, along with an armed escort comprising a sub-inspector of police, a head constable, two constables and two naiks. He was instructed never to set foot on Indian soil.
