Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate
Published on: 06 May 2023 at 21:59 IST
We all saw how five Army personnel were killed most mercilessly and a Major (Special Forces) wounded seriously on May 5 in an explosion that was triggered by terrorists and caused by an Improvised Explosive Device during a gunfight in the thickly forested Kandi Kotranka area of Rajouri district where troops had engaged with terrorists hiding in a cave.
It must be stated that two of the five slain Special Forces soldiers were part of a larger deployment hunting the men involved in the April 20 ambush of an Army truck in Poonch that had killed most mercilessly five Army personnel and who were killed outright.
It is high time and Centre must now start acting now most mercilessly with most merciless terrorists and give a free hand to soldiers to cross into PoK and mercilessly attack their soldiers and terrorists hideout not just by lip but also by action. Why should India unilaterally respect Line of Control?
We also witnessed how the People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFF) which is an offshoot of the Pakistan-backed terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for Friday’s killings as well and uploaded on social media its claim that it had carefully prepared an ambush. It said that, “How easy to goad you into ambush sites and kill zones.
How predictable your every move. How easy to explain your volatile and over excitable behaviour. We threw a bait on April 20 with that ambush to draw you into the jungle – Jungle that we have finely prepared for a long time. And you did exactly what we expected you to do.”
It must be asked: How long will Centre follow a defensive approach in dealing with terrorists and proxy war sponsored by Pakistan? How long will we senselessly stick to “no first attack” policy? How long will we unilaterally respect the Line of Actual Control? It is not only five soldiers who have been martyred, it is five families which have been martyred along with the soldiers.
Same was the case in the earlier attack of April 20 when again five soldiers were killed most mercilessly! Family suffers most and feels the pinch most for the brave soldiers shall never rise to see their families! Politicians must now send their children to army as soldiers only then will they realize and so also our bureaucrats that what it means to be killed at the young age of 20 or 22!
It must also be asked: Why is it that we see only one surgical strike in so many years after terrorists kill our soldiers most mercilessly? Why we don’t take such strong revenge by crossing into Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and mercilessly killing their soldiers and terrorists that they are compelled never to dare to attack India? Why we don’t listen to what former Army Chief Gen (Retd) Shankar Roy Chowdhury who served as 18th Chief of Army Staff in mid-1990s said that, “Why can’t we prepare our own suicide squad to attack their prime locations and impose a heavy cost on Pakistan? Why we are so defensive in our approach? Why can’t we take the fight to the other side of the border?”
It must be asked: Why India don’t has the wherewithal to kill Pakistani soldiers and terrorists most mercilessly just like they kill ours? Why we see only one surgical strikes in several years? Why we don’t cross into PoK when we consider it our own territory and impose a huge cost on them whenever they attack India?
Needless to say, even now it is not too late. Centre must take the most strongest stand and kill mercilessly their soldiers and terrorists so that they dare not again attack India by giving free hand to our soldiers to kill them! How long will our soldiers be sitting ducks? How long will our soldiers be killed just defending Indian borders? When will we learn to take the fight to the other side of the border as so many Army retired Generals and even serving Army officers most vocally point out?
It must be also said that India must amend its anti-terror laws and abolish mercy petition for terrorists. India must send a clear message to Western countries like USA, UK, Canada and Germany that it will not tolerate any interference in India’s internal matters and those who will carry out attacks on Indian religious places would be killed most mercilessly right in UK, US and Germany! By being very soft with Western countries, Pakistan and China, we have encouraged them to take us for granted in last so many decades. We must shed our defensive approach and adopt a more merciless approach towards terror groups and their sympathizer countries like Pakistan!
It must be also asked: Why the killers of former PM late Shri Rajiv Gandhi not hanged even after more than 30 years of the most ghastly assassination and even after being convicted by the top court? Why the killers of former Punjab Chief Minister late Shri Beant Singh not hanged even after 28 years of his assassination and even after being convicted by the Apex Court? Who is the protective, powerful and pro-Pakistan lobby who protects any serious action to be ever taken against such terrorists? The nation has a right to know!
My best friend Sageer Khan way back in 1993 advocated most vocally to abolish mercy petition for terrorists and also batted to treat them as they are treated in Saudi Arabia where we don’t see any terrorism as there is no tolerance for terrorists who don’t have any rights. In addition, Sageer Khan said that we must nuke all our relations with Pakistan and whenever they dare to attack India, our response should be such that the whole world shivers! Only then said Sageer will Pakistan never dare to attack India and take us for granted!
It must be asked: Why should it take 3 days or 3 weeks or 3 months or 3 years or 30 years just to decide a mercy petition? One day or at the most two days should be more than enough to decide on a mercy petition. Why the biggest mockery of “rule of law” is made by applauding the mercy petition not being decided even after three decades as we saw in case of killers of former PM late Shri Rajiv Gandhi way back in 1991 and so also killers of former Punjab Chief Minister late Shri Beant Singh who was responsible for crushing terrorists with a heavy hand?
It is a no-brainer that the biggest question worth more than a billion dollar that still looms large is: Should Centre still feel very proud that this is sending a very good message among all the terrorists like the killers of former Chief Minister of Punjab also that even after committing the most ghastly murder of Chief Ministers and Prime Ministers still they are able to cool their heels in jails for decades and decades without being subjected to be hanged? Should there even be mercy petition for such terrorists who strike at the very core of our nation by attacking PM and CM? My best friend Sageer Khan way back in 1993 was deadly against terrorists being given the benefit of mercy petition and was of the unequivocal view that they should be hanged at the earliest so that the right message percolates down that those who commit terror acts would not be spared ever and they would have to face the most disastrous consequences for having dared to commit terror acts!
In my college days, I always mistook dacoits for terrorists but my best friend Sageer Khan in 1993 while I was doing my BSc from Dr Hari Singh Gour Sagar University in Madhya Pradesh clarified all my doubts. He said that, “An ordinary criminal like a dacoit or rapist or robber or murderer or any other ordinary criminal never goes to Pakistan or any other foreign country for getting training on how to commit dacoity or rape or robbery or murder but a terrorist always go and get such best possible training to commit terror acts.
Not stopping here, he gets all type of financial and other kind of aid from abroad and armed to the teeth to perpetrate direct attack on the very identity of our nation as a whole. Ordinary criminals attack and affect adversely either one or few persons but in case of terrorists things are quite different because terrorists don’t attack just one or few individuals rather they attack and affect adversely our nation as a whole whom they want to destroy completely.
A terrorist always declares war against the nation but an ordinary criminal never does so. An ordinary criminal like a rapist or a dacoit will never attack our nuclear installations by which our entire nation can be wiped away but terrorists always place our nuclear installations on their hit list as they are a part of a proxy war waged by some of our neighbouring countries like Pakistan and it is a fact that if they are able to execute their evil design, our entire nation can be eliminated in one go! So why should we allow terrorists to avail of mercy petition like other ordinary criminals?”
Sageer Khan also said without any inhibition that, “It also cannot be denied that a terrorist always gets all types of aid from foreign countries but an ordinary criminal gets no such help. An ordinary criminal will never attack national symbols like Parliament, Red Fort, Supreme Court but terrorists always dream of attacking such places and sometimes have been able to partially attack them also,”.
“What is however most intriguing is that our Indian politicians overlook everything and find nothing wrong in holding regular talks with them only, declaring ceasefire for them and in passing time and again resolutions in their favour and not for ordinary criminals,”.
“An enemy soldier during war attack our army soldiers but terrorists are worse than them as they rarely attack men in uniform and always enjoy attacking innocent people especially pilgrims to holy shrines and still many of our leaders plead mercy for them,”.
“When they attack our soldiers they rarely attack from front and attack by cowardly firing from hidden locations! Do they still deserve mercy? It goes without saying that they are a potential threat to the very existence of our nation yet our government is not prepared to hang them even after they are convicted and sentenced to death by the Apex Court itself and forward puerile excuses for its inability in deciding on their mercy petitions for decades!”
Needless to say, even our former PM Dr Manmohan Singh had time and again warned of the terrorists launching attack on our nuclear installations by which our entire nation can be destroyed.
Even PM Narender Modi keep reminding world leaders of the grave threat posed by terrorists to the whole world at large! Still should they be allowed to file mercy petition as a birth right? Why can’t Centre amend the rules to meet the present scenario and abolish mercy petition for terrorists?
India has rightly conveyed to Pakistan that terror victims and perpetrators can’t sit together as Pakistan is the “promoter, justifier and spokesperson” of the terrorism industry but this is just not adequate.
We need to attack and change our defence policy from being defensive to more attacking so that our soldiers are not sacrificed like goats rather die fighting to take over PoK and other areas of Pakistan? When Pakistan does not respect India’s sovereignty then why should we accept them as an independent nation?
Till July and nearly mid August 1947 Pakistan was an integral and inseparable part of India since time immemorial! We need to review our policy towards Pakistan as talks just won’t lead us anywhere as we can see from our past experience when India always advocated talks inspite of being stabbed repeatedly and not be guided by US and UK who repeatedly encourage Khalistani terrorists who don’t spare even our religious places of worship and all such terror groups who are directed against India and left huge arms in Afghanistan before fleeing so that they may be used against India which we tend to usually gloss over! Of course, Pakistan is relentlessly provoking India to partition Pakistan once more as was done in 1971 and India under the able, bold and brave leadership of PM Narendra Modi must accept the challenge and work relentlessly till it is executed as was desired also in 1993 by my best friend Sageer Khan because as long as we don’t act, Pakistan will take it as our weakness! To say the least, we must at least stop respecting territorial integrity of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and so also Pakistan and adopt a more approach of taking the fight to the other side of the border even if the whole world stand against us like we see Russia doing as Ukraine is again being aided and abetted by US, UK, Canada and other European countries!
Views are Personal