New Delhi, June 26 (IANS) Former Indian Army chief Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw is in a comatose state in a military hospital in Wellington in Tamil Nadu and doctors are doing their best to revive him, an official here said Thursday. “The field marshal is in a comatose state and the doctors are doing their best to revive him,” the official told IANS, requesting anonymity.

Manekshaw, 94, has been battling a series of old age-related ailments for the past few years. He has been treated at the Army Hospital (Research & Referral) here and at the Military Hospital at Wellington, where he settled down after retiring as the army chief on Jan 15, 1973 after four decades of military service.

He was conferred the honorary rank of field marshal for his stellar leadership during the India-Pakistan war in 1971 that led to the creation of the independent nation of Bangladesh after the surrender of more than 90,000 Pakistani troops in the erstwhile East Pakistan.

Born at Amritsar on April 3, 1914, Manekshaw was commissioned into the army from the first course of the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, in 1934. He saw action in Burma, now Myanmar, during the Second World War and became the Indian Army chief on June 7, 1969.