How long will our brave soldiers be sitting ducks for terrorists sponsored directly by Pakistan? How long will we not retaliate so hard as we did in 1971 when Pakistan was much to the huge shock of the whole world split into two parts – Pakistan and Bangladesh earlier known as West Pakistan and East Pakistan engineered under the bold and dynamic leadership of late Mrs Indira Gandhi who took not even six years of power to attack so hard that till date Pakistan burns in anger and for nearly thirty years kept quiet? How long will we keep allowing Pakistan, ISI, Pakistani Army and various terror groups to take the lives of our brave soldiers for granted as more than 35 to 40 years have already lapsed?

It must be also asked: How long will our politicians render just lip service of giving a befitting reply to Pakistan after every terror attack? How long will India shamelessly, senselessly and stupidly unilaterally keep respecting the Line of Actual Control and thus make an open legal mockery of Indian soldiers time and again who keep getting mercilessly killed and yet we don’t retaliate with full force? How long will our leaders be proud after ensuring one or two surgical strikes but never eliminating the roots of terrorists in PoK and Pakistan? Of course, it certainly merits no reiteration at all and there can be no gainsaying that this most self destructive, derisive, divisive and dangerous mindset of our leaders bothered mainly about vote bank politics has to change if India is to survive as a nation

Most recently, we lost the precious lives of Col Manpreet Singh, Major Ashish Dhonchak and DSP Humayun Bhat in fierce encounter in Anantnag which is still continuing and more casualties are being reported yet it is so baffling that why we tolerate everything so quietly? Why can’t we dare inflict on Pakistan such wound that it dare not again attack India? We have been tolerating Pakistan sponsored insurgency since more than four decades yet why have we always ensured that Pakistan stays united as one nation ever since 1971 till now? Why we gave a grand welcome to the Pakistani invader late Gen Pervez Musharraf who masterminded Kargil war in which we lost more than 600 soldiers as per official figures even though unofficially the figure is quite high within 3 to 4 months of Kargil war thereby directly making an open legal mockery of the supreme sacrifice rendered by our brave soldiers which was masterminded by late Gen Musharraf himself as he candidly acknowledged also even though Pakistan lost badly in the proxy Kargil war?

The billion dollar question is: Why India most shamelessly and most disgracefully never raised in any international forum the most horrendous torture of Captain Saurav Kalia and five soldiers of 4 Jat Regiment who were captured alive in May 1999 after they ran out of ammunition and they were first to inform about the infiltration in Kargil and were most brutally tortured for nearly a month and their whole parts bore torture signs, eyes were gouged out, nose was pierced with iron rods and even private parts were not spared? This despite the irrefutable fact that the then Defence Minister late Jaswant Singh and so also late PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee had assured Captain Saurav Kalia’s father – Mr NK Kalia that they would raise the matter in international forums yet nothing done in last 24 years and Mr NK Kalia is fighting a lonely battle in Supreme Court and this depicts the most unpalatable truth about how indifferent our leaders are towards the most horrendous torture that was inflicted on the orders of late Gen Musharraf who himself claimed that he entered about 15 to 16 km deep inside Indian territory just before Kargil war began and instructed to most brutally kill our soldiers yet was invited like a royal emperor within few months after Kargil war in India! Can this happen in any self-respecting nation? Similarly in 1971 also we released more than 93,000 Prisoners of War of Pakistan but they did not release about 200 or even more of our soldiers and officers who still languish or have died after facing the most worst torture by Pakistani forces? IAS officers of senior rank were appointed in 1999 to hold talks and dialogues with various terror groups! Can this happen in any self respecting independent nation? Will Pakistan invite our General who masterminds an invasion or will they kill such General? You answer! No wonder BJP lost the elections miserably in 2004!

I always pay my deepest tributes to martyrs but I am not in favour of only spending crores of rupees on war memorials just for token sake but on ground not doing anything to inflict the most horrendous attack as we did in 1971 when Pakistan was split which is the most fitting tribute for our brave soldiers but since last four decades we are doing nothing but just tolerating quietly which is most bewildering! Most disgusting and shocking to learn that the son of DSP Humayun Bhat killed by terrorists is just 29 days old and daughter of Major Ashish Dhonchak just two years old and similarly the son and daughter of Col Manpreet Singh are also very small! When will we learn to carry the fight deep inside Pakistani territory and inflict huge casualty on them and raise suicide squads of our own as suggested by former Army Chief – Gen (Retd) Shankar Roy Chowdhury so that they also suffer immeasurably and realize what it means to lose the lives of brave soldiers?

What I find truly most shattering is that the Centre is dead determined that under no circumstances will it ever allow mercy petition to be abolished ever for terrorists which terrorists never deserve also nor will it ever make death penalty mandatory for terror acts leaving no discretion of any kind in the hands of any Judge to allow a terrorist to escape lightly under any circumstances! This alone explains why we see that under the changes proposed in penal laws, chapter on terrorism has been added but we don’t find mandatory death penalty nor abolishing of mercy petition nor a time limit fixed to decide mercy petition. This is naturally exploited by terrorists and we have seen how the killers of former PM late Mr Rajiv Gandhi not hanged even after more than 32 years of the ghastly killing in Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu on May 21, 1991 when he was just 46 years of age and so also the killers of former Chief Minister of Punjab late Mr Beant Singh who was most instrumental in eliminating terrorism from Punjab along with top cop late Mr KPS Gill in 1995 have not been hanged till now!

Why no mandatory death penalty for terror acts and gang rapes and parading a women naked? Why even under the proposed amended penal laws we don’t see any change in the punishment for gang rape? What is the point of amending penal laws if punishment for gang rapists is same like earlier? You tell me. Centre must seriously introspect on this!

My very best friend Sageer Khan way back in 1993 in Mackronia locality in Sagar in Madhya Pradesh when I was doing my BSc was first to educate me about how terrorists must be neutralized using full force and advocated zero tolerance policy for terrorists and said that unlike other criminals they are a threat not to just one or few individuals unlike rapists or dacoits or robbers or murderers but are the most dangerous and direct to the very existence of our nation and so he fails to comprehend that why Centre repeatedly hold talks and dialogues with them, releases dreaded terrorists if they take somebody hostage and declare “Ramzan Ka Ceasefire” for them for they should be treated only and only as terrorists who have just no religion except to kill innocents and our brave soldiers at the instructions of Pakistani Army and ISI! Sageer Khan further had warned that if they are not nipped in the bud by adopting the same ruthless policy as we see in Saudi Arabia to brutally cut their body parts and then throw them and not allow them to die also so that they stay alive and realize what they have done and when they die not allow even their dead body to be buried then no one will again dare to become a terrorist and Pakistan should be hit so hard that they are never able to recover from the astounding shock that India can strike so hard and never again dares to attack India! Sageer also said that unless we strike hard with full force as in 1971 Pakistan will keep taking us for granted! Now after more than three decades when I introspect, I find now that Sageer Khan was totally right and our politicians most shamelessly except doing lip service very conveniently brush aside taking any hard hitting action against terrorists and Pakistan and this has only served to embolden them to attack us time and again and very rarely one or two surgical strikes have been carried out which are then over publicized and we have not crossed the LoC in PoK time and again like they do and struck so hard that Pakistan weeps, groans and shouts in pain!

It is our brave soldiers who pay the most and their families who are left behind with no bread winner for them! We would be living in a fool paradise if we think that Centre will ever change its self suicidal policy and this is quite ostensibly what worries me most! Even Mr Asaduddin Owaisiji lashes out at India playing cricket with Pakistan but why India still plays cricket match with them thereby making an open legal mockery of the paramount sacrifice which our soldiers are rendering every day on borders? Why is Pakistan not taught a permanent lesson by striking very hard that whole world wakes up? Sageer Khan had said that for one attack from Pakistan we must respond by carrying out at least 10 terror attacks with full force very hard deep inside Pakistan so that they can never dare attack us and we should have no relations with a rogue country like Pakistan! It is high time and we must nuke all relations with Pakistan and must strike deep inside Pakistan so that it stops taking the lives of our brave soldiers for granted!

How long will Centre keep watching how the most precious lives of our brave officers and soldiers are lost forever to bullets of terrorists and still not summon the political will power to carry out massive surgical strikes in PoK except during elections? Why are we relentlessly giving Pakistan, terrorists and terror leaders a long rope since last more than four decades? My very best friend Sageer Khan strongly advocated merciless killings of terrorists and their supporters both inside India and outside India but Centre even in proposed penal laws has not abolished mercy petition of terrorists and no mandatory death penalty for terror acts made and so here also we see that no zero tolerance policy against terrorists, their handlers and Pakistan being implemented on ground! It is only lip service we witness like former Army Chief Gen (Retd) VK Singh talking about PoK being integrated with India but on ground we see just nothing happening much in last more than 9 years of PM Mr Narendra Modi’s tenure! It is high time that we act and assert our real strength in front of the world!

To sum up, Pakistan requires a permanent cure as was said by my very best friend Sageer Khan way back in 1993 and said that in 1971 our the then PM late Mrs Indira Gandhi partitioned Pakistan India into two parts only and I hail it but am not satisfied and feel that Pakistan should have been torn into so many pieces that no one can even count so that they never again pose any kind of threat to India and I pray to my Allah that I stay alive Inshallah to see that day! But our political parties who have ruled in Centre in last 77 years have never dared to partition Pakistan except in 1971 and it is high time and just lip service won’t do and action must be taken on a very strong war footing so that no nation ever dares to launch terror attacks against India! Centre must act now! No more dilly-dallying on this as it brooks no more delay now anymore!

Sanjeev Sirohi, Advocate,
s/o Col (Retd) BPS Sirohi, A 82, Defence Enclave,
Sardhana Road, Kankerkhera, Meerut – 250001, Uttar Pradesh.