It is our duty still to
endeavor to avoid war; but if it shall actually take place, no matter by whom
brought on, we must defend ourselves. If our house be on fire, without inquiring
whether it was fired from within or without, we must try to extinguish it.
(Thomas Jefferson)
After taking Kashmir into UNO and admitting the right to plebiscite for people
of Kashmir, India has made itself the Pakistan’s Kashmir case justified, but
going back to history one sees only intriguing agendas and nefarious designs
made by India against Pakistan. Fruitless processes of peace talks started and
ended as per the Indian whims.
Wars of 1965 and 1971 were fought, conflicts and skirmishes erupted on LoC or
Working Boundary time and again during the last 68 years; basic reason behind
being the illegal and atrocious Indian hold of Kashmiri people against their
will. India on the one hand mocked the world for ‘futile’ dialogue and wicked
‘cold start’ doctrine to force Pakistan surrender to its hostility. It availed
every chance to ditch Pakistan by cropping traitors on the other. It is now no
secret how terrorists are get training, weapons, technical support and money as
recently the Pakistan has handed over undeniable proofs to the British
government.
Premier Nawaz Sharif is restlessly endeavouring to establish friendly ties with
India even by setting aside the general public reaction. Stubborn India not only
rejected his proposals, but also insisted upon imposing disgusting conditions on
talks. In proper words India wants to establish its hegemony over Pakistan like
it has established over Nepal and Bhutan. It longs to engender Pakistan accept
its terms and conditions on Afghan trade routes and its future perspectives
beyond. In order to suppress Pakistan it has been utilizing propaganda warfare
on the international level and terrorists in Waziristan, Balochistan and Karachi
as double edged sword.
Not only India supports and infiltrates terrorists in Baluchistan from
Afghanistan but supercharges a blame game against Pakistan on the same footings
of infiltration into Indian Held Kashmir. Despite it has constructed gigantic
wall of barbed wire with high voltage fencing over LoC (Line of Control) it
keeps on slinging mud on Pakistan. Breaching the Ceasefire Accord since 2013,
India has been time and again heating up LoC and Working Boundary with
unprovoked shelling and firing disrupting peace in these areas.
Well this reminds one the mien of happenings before September, 1965 war.
Newspaper reports of the time suggest that the shelling and firing across the
CFL (Ceasefire Line, as the Line of Control or LoC was then known), intrusions
and other provocative activities increased manifold by India between January and
July 1965. Pakistani Army recorded some 1800 such activities in that period as
compared to just about 522 in the same period in 1964. In June and July 1965,
there were at least half a dozen firing incidents daily across the CFL mostly
instigated from Indian side. India under Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and
his defence minister YB Chavan also took measures to re-arm, expand and
modernize the Indian military. Arms assistance from the Soviet Union was
gratefully accepted. Despite, having suffered a morale-shattering defeat in 1962
by china India never learned a lesson and waged a war against western neighbor
this time. But the resilience from Pakistani Forces foiled he Indian plans to
bow down a brave nation.
Recently a high ranked Indian force officer, Air Marshal (R etd) Bharat Kumar
first time in 50 years admitted that India suffered much as compared to Pakistan
in the war of 1965. He admitted the Indian defeat in the war of 1965 in his
book, titled “The Duels of the Himalayan Eagle: The First Indo-Pak Air War”. A
report with regard to the book was also published in the Indian newspaper ‘The
Times of India’. India had lost 35 of its aircraft on the ground during
pre-emptive strikes — one on Pathankot on September 6 and then on Kalaikunda, a
day later. Indian Air Force (IAF)’s latest history of its operations in the 1965
war acknowledges it “suffered disproportionately higher losses” than PAF. In
all, IAF lost 59 out of its inventory of 460 aircraft during the war. The book
also takes a candid look at the abysmal lack of coordination between IAF and the
Army, a controversy that lingers to this day, with the author admitting that
“mistakes were made”, as they are made in all wars. Absence of joint IAF-Army
planning and tardy intelligence as well as poor communication links and radar
coverage, scarce resources and the wide theatre of operations, all led to the
disjointed conduct of operations by India, which was still recovering from the
1962 debacle with China.
On war field the Battle of Chawinda was one of the largest tank battles after
the Second World War. It pitted about 132 Pakistani against 600 Indian armoured
vehicles. The battle lasted from September 6-22 in and around Chawinda near
Ravi-Chenab corridor connecting Jammu and Kashmir with the Indian mainland. The
Indian army was hoping to cut off the Pakistani supply line by cutting off the
city of Sialkot from Lahore. A massive tank battle took place on September 11 in
the Phillora region. The battle finally ended on September 21 when Indian forces
had to withdraw and facing historic defeat. Pakistan lost 40 tanks, while the
Indians lost more than 120. Residents of Sialkot and Chawinda battled
shoulder-to-shoulder with the armed forces of Pakistan to repulse the biggest
ever attack of cunning and invading Indian army with 600 tanks at Chawinda while
laying down under these tanks after tying the bombs with their bodies. The brave
people of Sialkot and Chawinda sacrificed their lives to repulse the major
Indian army attack during the Indo-Pak War on September 6, 1965 and stories of
their empty-handed fight with a regular Army are still alive and have become
Folklores.
With these terse accounts of war, the Modi government’s plan to celebrate the
1965 war as “a great victory” over Pakistan has raised quite a few eyebrows
because even the Indian defence ministry’s official war history describes its
end as a stalemate and fiasco. Only an UN intervention saved India the blushes.
Again the border skirmishes and threats perpetrated by India of recent days are
a pathetic reminder that the curse of short-sightedness of Indian hawkish
leadership still prevails, which continues to blight the prospects for a
brighter future of sub continent. The logic of good-neighbourly relations has
been evident ever since the monumental bloodletting that accompanied the birth
of freedom in 1947. But Indian stubborn reluctance to enter into meaningful
dialogue with Pakistan has made it impossible for the chances of peace to be
flourished in region. It has been engaged in strategic tactics across LoC,
Working Boundary and international border since long reckoning preparations of
another war short or long whatever it mulls. It purports that walls of barbed
wire built by Indian army over LoC failed to stop intruders and now the
construction of new protection wall is inevitable. Now it is poised to construct
a wall that will be 10 meters high, 41 meters wide and 198 km long providing it
a military structure being a part of big war plan against Pakistan. With such a
length it could act like cantonment with enough space for military supplies even
to hide hangers of gunship helicopters.
Surprisingly all this hysteria has been erected when Pakistan gears up to
celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1965 victory. India must recall the
resilience of Pakistani forces and national enthusiasm of Pakistani nation
thrilled with success of Operation Zarb e Azb against terrorists and their
abettors. This time it will meet the same fate again if it tries to inflict a
war short or long term basis. It is significant to remember Indian perfidy half
a century ago.