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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