Kargil - when will carnage end?
Zaheer Ahmed Sayeed
The Hindu
June 22, 1999
Title: Kargil - when will carnage end?
Author: Zaheer Ahmed Sayeed
Publication: The Hindu
Date: June 22, 1999
The town is still. Tears pour out from all watching eyes.
Every person awaits the army truck carrying the mortal
remains of Lt. Kalia. At last the green vehicle trudges in
and dislodges the mutilated body. All the inhabitants
Muslim, Hindu, Sikh join in the chorus with moaning cries,
tears flowing as the tricolour is draped over Lt. Kalia and
his mates. The last rites begin with the army presenting and
reversing arms. The bugle sounds the last post. The funeral
pyre is lit. The mortal remains are consumed. Outpouring
sorrow from parents, children, wife and community continues
with a brother echoing a human rights desecration. A new day
starts. The guns boom again with the jets and the jawans
fighting eye to eye to keep the Indian citizen safe,
reclaiming slowly but surely every inch of Indian territory.
Is it really a new day? With blood and guts of the Indian
soldier paying his last respects to his janma bhoomi and
will continue doing so. It makes every citizen of our nation
proud to see his brother irrespective of caste, clan or
religion rendering the dues to our unfriendly neighbour
Pakistan's incursion into Indian Territory. When will this
carnage end?
The LoC may be irrelevant, the Lahore Declaration consigned
to the flames and the Simla agreement thrown to the winds.
But was all this necessary? Till date, every media be it
print or visual of any and every country squarely blames
Pakistan. On both sides of the LoC the same roti, dhal and
when feasible chicken tandoori are the staple food. The
parlance of daily communication, military or otherwise, is
the same. Name it Hindi or Urdu it matters not, for now they
sound the same. With such commonalities why this butchering?
Similar scenario encompassing `dafans' is probably the order
of the day in the towns of Pakistan as well.
Neither the religion of Islam, nor the Quran, or the Prophet
decree such massacre. Even the battle of Badr in the times
of the Holy Prophet saw killings only when provoked and not
as an act of aggression with strict injunctions towards
safety of women, children and civilians. To categorise what
Pakistan has done `un- Islamic'' would be an understatement.
Have Mr. Nawaz Sharif, Gen. Aziz and Gen. Ashraf ever
thought of their response to the Almighty on the day of
reckoning towards their precipitation of so much human
bloodshed on both sides of the LoC? Blood of the believer or
unbeliever in Allah's ken is the same, when deceit,
treachery, wanton murder and inhuman torture with carnage
shed it. Any believer would pray to Allah that in his
beneficence He impart to the Pakistani oligarchy better
sense than to shed so much Indian or Pakistani blood for
they know not what they are doing. The claim by Pakistan
that `Indian leaders are responsible for escalating the
tension in Kargil' (Sartaj Aziz on the media) rings a
dementing note to all concerned.
Can this commentator ask: 1. LoC or no LoC what are members
of the Pakistani armed forces doing on Indian territory? 2.
LoC does not shift by itself but is shifted by individuals.
In this sense it is obvious from Mr. Sartaj Aziz's hollow
explanation that Pakistan willfully shifted the LoC and
occupied Indian territory. Why? 3. Did Pakistan think that
having shot the first shell it will beget no similar
response?
The well publicised tapes of conversation between the
Pakistani generals, the contradictory utterances of Mr.
George Fernandez and the Central Government, the vocal
support to India by the policemen of the world, USA, with
similar utterance by the Chinese, significant as they are,
assume little importance. What is paramount is to assess
what Pakistan would achieve by grabbing a few more bighas of
Indian territory? Blocking the highway from Srinagar to Leh
will not help it. It opens up another front for India to
defend since the incursions in the rest of Kashmir have come
to naught. If this has been done to harass our country the
answer has been rendered effectively by the nation despite
the Government of the day being caretaker or otherwise.
There is no doubt in any Indian mind be it Muslim or Hindu,
that every inch of Indian territory will be regained
irrespective of cost to economy and lives.
The media portrays that India will add decency by dissuading
the armed forces from crossing the LoC. Is one to assume
that the Indian should give in all the time without any
recourse to her defence since it is indecent to cross the
LoC? If crossing the LoC is necessary to protect our citizen
with all the risks involved, this commentator would say - so
be it. But have the Pakistani generals and the polity
thought at what cost to them will India regain the
territory. Little do they realise that the holding power of
India even in isolation would prove much superior to theirs.
They forget that we manufacture our own guns, tanks and
satellites not to mention our own aircrafts as well.
It is a fact of foreign relations that peace following armed
conflicts remains precarious and is subsumed by further
conflict. Internationalising its own perceptions of Kashmir
by diplomatic means is one issue but perpetration of
warmongering and unnecessary dehumanised killings is
another. A price Pakistan will certainly pay for the latter,
with irreparable loss of trust being the highest. One
suspects that even cricket which Pakistan plays well has not
taught a lesson or two to them. To name this incursion as
``Jihad'' which the Pakistanis have been known to claim,
every believer of Islam would consider blasphemous. Perhaps
the Pakistani generals and Mian Nawaz Sharif should peruse
the Quran once again with its annotations both in English
and Urdu by the famous author, Mr. Yusuf Ali. As simple a
measure as this might prove more educative and economical
than the surreptitious preparation made to destroy a
neighbour in the backdrop of the Lahore Declaration.
But once again when will this carnage stop? No one at
present is certain whether the cart (the Pakistan's polity)
or their horse, (Pakistan's armed forces) leads the
warmongering mind construct. More so since Mr. Nawaz Sharif
on June 20 in Islamabad, washed his hands off ``mercenary
militants'' (carrying on themselves and identifying them as
soldiers of Pakistan army), claiming that the `war of
freedom'' movement was not started on his orders nor would
they stop it at his instructions. This in effect means that
he has no control over the armed forces of the country, at
least in the present harassment being rendered to Kargil. If
it is the polity - a great deal of evidence point against it
perhaps then a resolution is in sight. But if the horse -
the Pakistani military is the warmonger at the expense of
democratically elected government only the Almighty should
help Nation of Pakistan. The question still remains in
Pakistan who leads and who follows. If the armed forces are
calling the shots they can rest assured the Indian polity
despite divisions will beat the hell out of them,
notwithstanding the calls emanating from the American and
Chinese leadership. Those concerned forget our national logo
- - ``Satyameva Jeyate'' which is inscribed under the three
lioned stupa of our national emblem and the cap of every
Indian soldier may he be Sikh, Hindu, Muslim or Christian.
Can Pakistan boast of the same?
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