Pulwama Attack: Yes, we are angry. And we need to see our anger channelized now
11 PM, February 15, 2019.
Far away from Pulwama in Kashmir, a resonant chorus filled the air in the city of Patna in Bihar. Students carrying small white placards bearing the slogan ‘Pakistan Murdabad’ (Down with Pakistan!) marched through the lane where I live, chanting angered slogans.
It was a surreal sight that greeted my eyes when I stepped out of the house to see what was happening. In an area dominated by hostels, I saw crowds of youngsters standing on rooftops and balconies — chanting the slogans along with the group marching in the lane.
It was a reflection of the anger Indians are feeling after the dastardly terrorist attack in Pulwama — which reduced a bus to a charred skeleton of intertwined metallic bones and turned over 40 gallant CRPF soldiers into martyrs in times of illusory peace.
The nation is shocked, hurt — and very, very angry.
Most Indians today no longer want to hear politically correct, diplomacy-infused promises of dealing with Pakistan in the future. The withdrawal of the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to Pakistan isn’t a strong enough punishment for our errant neighbour’s heinous misdeeds.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Army has been given a free hand to decide the time and place of attack, which has given rise to the all-important question — is it mere rhetoric or a candid declaration of intent?
The common person on Indian streets wants emphatic action against the failed jihadist state that hosts and pampers terrorists, before repeatedly unleashing them on their neighbour. Decades of uneasy coexistence with Pakistan has taught India that the former cannot be let off with verbal warnings. It also has become evident that the chidings and criticism of the international community are wasted on Pakistan, a nation that seems to be deaf to these reproaches. Despite being economically toothless, Pakistan continues to pursue the policy of merging belligerence with stealth against India.
Remember the 1999 Kargil War?
It started as infiltration of Pakistani armed forces, disguised as mujahideen (crusaders) into the Indian side of the Line of Control (LoC), and it culminated in armed conflict and humiliation for Pakistan. It started thus as a stealth operation — the standard method employed by our neighbouring state — but then backfired.
Terrorism has hit India hard time and again, disrupting our peace and preying on our innocents. In a cruel irony of existence, today, the names of terrorists who have hurt India badly are as known as those of serious achievers who have earned great prominence in public memory.
For instance, there is Afzal Guru who facilitated the 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament. Then there is Ajmal Kasab — a brainwashed moron and member of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) who became the face of the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai in 2008.
Many other names — Hafeez Muhammed Saeed, Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi, Maulana Masood Azhar and now, the 20-year-old suicide bomber Adil Dar who brought about the deaths of multiple CRPF men in Pulwama — have become part of modern-day narratives on terrorism in India.
How long can this list of names grow?
After the latest assault, India must corner Pakistan with a set of measures, without entering into a full-fledged armed conflict. An Indian response could mean surgical strikes, scrapping Articles 35A and 370 to facilitate the process of merging Kashmir with the national mainstream, and launching an all-out crackdown to wipe off terrorists from the map of that beleaguered state.
Misguided groups who are being readied for sabotage and great violence by a deranged neighbour simply cannot be allowed to prosper. If our forces being relentless in the larger interest of the nation is the need of the hour, so be it.
It was November 21, 2012.
Those days, I lived in Pune, in an area close to the Yerawada jail. My domestic help walked in at around 9 'o clock in the morning and was beaming (unusually for her). “Bhaiyya," she announced, "Kasab ko taang diya", (Kasab has been hung), she gushed.
The terrorist — the only one to be captured alive during the 2008 terror attack — had been executed at 7.30 AM.
Whether or not capital punishment should be meted out is a debate for another day. The operative part here is the hatred of a common woman for the terrorist who went berserk with a gun in his hands in Mumbai.
Two years ago, on February 13, 2010, I was walking towards a bakery after watching a film at a multiplex close by.
Sounds uneventful?
Not if I told you that the bakery was Pune’s German Bakery and while I was walking towards it, I heard a blast — that killed 17 and injured 60 more. I must have been about 100 metres away, just that far from a serious injury or death.
Some good people lost their lives that day. But that is what terrorism does — it kills or maims when one is least expecting it. When one is, quite possibly, happy.
Just as the CRPF men would have been, when their ill-fated bus was being driven through Pulwama — the location of the catastrophe. They weren’t fighting an enemy. They weren’t prepared for martyrdom. They died when they should have carried on living — like the rest of us.
An incident of this sort only consolidates the belief that ‘Naya Pakistan’ is, in essence, ‘Purana Pakistan.’
The rogue state can be expected to mend its ways only if India takes strict action. No more half-measures.
If history repeats itself because of a soft response that does not shake Pakistan up, we will only have ourselves to blame.