Gurdaspur attack: Is India about to teach Pakistan a lesson?

Terror returned to the Punjab today after years and years, reminding old-timers of the 1980s when pro-Khalistan terrorists instigated, aided and armed by the Pakistani establishment would separate Hindus from Sikhs and kill them, just like that, their only crime being that they belonged to the Hindu faith.

The bus massacres were the worst… In an era when moving pictures were limited to Doordarshan, black-and-white newspapers reported in chilling details the gruesome killing of Hindu men, women and even children the next morning. In a state where Hindu families, especially in rural Punjab, routinely “gave” their first-born male child to the Sikh faith, this was unthinkable. The motive of these pro-Khalistani terrorists was said to be a bloodthirsty revenge for the 1984 riots in Delhi (and elsewhere in the country), in which more than 3,000 Sikhs had been massacred. An eye for an eye was making Punjab blind.

The motive for today’s terrorist incident in Gurdaspur is still unknown. But if the terrorist who has been caught turns out to be Pakistani, a replay of the 2008 Mumbai attacks is on the cards. TV channels are already calling this man, Ajmal Kasab No 2.

One thing is for sure. The incipient warmth created by the handshake between prime ministers Narendra Modi and Nawaz Sharif at Ufa, in Russia, will sooner than later evaporate. Anurag Thakur, the BJP MP from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, has already been fielded to say that “terror and cricket” cannot go together, a warning signal that the India-Pakistan cricket series in the UAE in December could be in jeopardy.

The attacks certainly put the prime minister in a dilemma: Should the government retaliate-– by taking out camps across the international border, in the Pakistani Punjab? Should he cancel the impending talks between the National Security Advisors of India and Pakistan, Ajit Doval and Sartaj Aziz, a key takeaway of the Ufa Initiative? Or should he issue a stern warning to the Pakistanis today and when Sartaj Aziz comes to Delhi?

Certainly, the international community will be nervous that the Gurdaspur incident could lead to an escalation of retributive attacks. Considering the hostile history between the two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan, the telephone lines must be undoubtedly burning between major world capitals, even as we speak.

Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain, recently retired as the corps commander of the Srinagar-based 15 Corps believes that Gurdaspur was picked as a target by the cross-border terrorists because security forces in Jammu & Kashmir have tightened security in that state to such an extent that it leaves terrorists no option but to move south.

Writing in www.swarajyamag.com, Gen Hasnain said: “The Army’s 15 Corps in Kashmir has over the years tightened its hold over infiltration to such an extent that it is becoming extremely difficult for the Pakistan nexus of agencies to send in terrorists, leaders and wherewithal into Kashmir’s hinterland. 16 Corps deployed south of the Pir Panjal followed suit and made it very difficult to do that in the crucial Poonch and Rajouri sectors.

Turns out that the first big city south of the Pir Panjal is Gurdaspur.

The Pakistani establishment in Rawalpindi – if they are behind this incident – may have another good reason to target Gurdaspur. Remember that in the first few days after Cyril Radcliffe carved up the country in August 1947, the fate of Gurdaspur was uncertain. It had a majority Muslim population, about 51.14 per cent, but it was contiguous to Hindu-majority areas.

Radcliffe compromised by giving Gurdaspur’s Shakargarh tehsil, on the other side of the Ravi river, to west Punjab in Pakistan, which was then absorbed into Sialkot. The remaining districts of Gurdaspur, Batala and Pathankot were absorbed into India.

Radcliffe then wanted to compensate Pakistan with Ferozepur and Zira tehsils in Ferozepur district, but Jawaharlal Nehru would have none of it.

Nehru also fought for Gurdaspur for another reason – he knew that one all-weather road to Jammu & Kashmir lay through this town. Giving Gurdaspur to Pakistan would mean losing access to this territory.

Cut to the present and prime minister Narendra Modi and what he and the RSS decide to do to send an unequivocal signal that India will never bow down to terror. His own thundering apart, the memory of Sushma Swaraj in her capacity as leader of the Opposition in January 2013, promising “to behead ten heads for one”, when two Indian soldiers were beheaded by Pakistanis, comes to mind.

The next 24 hours will decide India’s policy towards Pakistan.