The fastest speed at which anything can travel is the speed of light, measured at 299,792,458 meters per second. The next fastest is the speed of sound, which is 343.2 meters per second. The man was able to make aircraft in the mid-1960s that could acquire a speed beyond the speed of sound. When these aircraft went beyond the speed of sound, they broke the sound barrier, resulting in a loud bang called a sonic boom. Therefore, the term “supersonic” was coined to describe aircraft capable of exceeding the speed of sound. India acquired MIG aircraft from Russia with a lot of fanfare. Their induction into the IAF was considered a big achievement in strengthening the air power of the country.
In mid-1967, Sirsa Air Base in Haryana hosted a major Air Force exercise where the MIGs were on display. We watched the sky, craning our necks at the display of MIG aircraft, and heard the loud bangs when they breached the sound barrier. Spectators would loudly clap their hands in appreciation when the aircraft broke the sound barrier. After that, the speed of the aircraft continued to increase significantly, which reduced air travel time between continents. Then came the Concorde, the fastest commercial aircraft. Their production was, however, stopped soon after; perhaps such high speed of travel was not liked by the travelers.
I had the unique opportunity to witness the Concorde aircraft glide through the sky at midday. The Concorde was a very attractive aircraft that flew at high speed and could be seen for no more than a minute. The next day we read in the papers that the high-flying object was indeed a Concorde, overflying India to a far east destination.
One thing that is faster than the speed of light is the human mind. The transportation from one place to another is instantaneous. One moment you are here, and the next moment your mind is contemplating another location thousands of miles away. As I approach my 90th year of life, memories of events from 60, 70, or 80 years ago resurface in my mind, replete with details and clarity, as if they had occurred just yesterday. I was privy to certain events that seemed to have been tailor-made for me only.
Growing up as a kid in a remote and obscure place like Katihar, I had a rare opportunity to observe and see events that normally never happen in a city or a town. A family of snake charmers used to live close to our house, with whom I was quite friendly. One day, when I went over to their house, he had just captured a large cobra and wanted to tame it. He then demonstrated the process of extracting the snake’s venom from its upper jaw. The snake was in a bag; he pulled the cord, and the bag opened. In a flash, the head of the cobra came up, and in a swift move, he grabbed the neck of the cobra and pulled it out. He then held the snake tightly in his grip; it was limp as if it were lifeless. He then pried open the cobra’s jaw, revealing two capsule-like structures on top, which he claimed contained all the venom. Then, with a sharp knife, he cut the two ends of the capsule and pulled them off. He then declared, “Now the snake is safe. He can bite anything, and it will have no effect.” When I asked him if the snake was safe forever, He said, “No. The fresh capsules will soon appear after a period of time, after which the snake will once again be as dangerous as ever.”
I have also witnessed a snake biting a perfectly healthy child. The snake tied a tourniquet to the lower part of the leg to prevent the venom from spreading. Upon calling for help, the tantric immediately removed the tourniquet before initiating the rituals. In no time the venom that was thus contained spread through the body, and we saw froth coming out of his mouth, and the body turned blue and he was gone. A doctor was called later who did give an SOS injection, but that was of no help.
Another instance was when a group of boys was running to catch a kite that was floating down the air after being ‘cut.’ They did not see the oncoming engine of a train initially. While others stopped just in time, one got run over by the train, cutting his body into many pieces.
We used to walk down for tuitions in the evenings on pitch-dark roads, carrying a hurricane lamp, which, even when held high, would not light up the area below it. The result was that objects close by were not immediately visible. Once, while walking down the road, I almost stepped on a baby cobra that was coiled up and raised itself in an aggressive mood after being alerted by the sound of my footsteps. I barely avoided stepping on the baby cobra by extending my stride. On the same assignment on another day, as I was walking along happily holding the lantern in my hand and singing aloud to overcome the fear of the unknown, I was blinded by the strong light of a torch. As I was cursing the man who was doing it, we were alerted by the shout of a woman who was walking ahead of him, who shouted, “Maa go.” Just then the man shouted, “Ahsan, just stop; don’t move.” And we saw a huge snake slowly crossing the road. It was my friend who had gone a little earlier to the tutor, found that he was not present, and was coming back to inform me to do an about-turn and go back home.
People might have read stories about a roadside performer playing his “Been,” a type of flute, which made a coil of rope lying on the ground rise and dance to his tune. People watching this would want to check out how it’s happening. A few people would do a close check on the rope and would find that it was an ordinary rope with nothing concealed in it. As long as the flute played, the rope would continue to dance. The moment the music stopped, the rope would drop to the ground.
Katihar was a small town then, sparsely populated. There were clusters of a few houses, then an open road, then another cluster of houses, and so on. There was no public transport, only a few hand-drawn rickshaws. On a clear road a rickshaw puller would gallop along, and to maintain the momentum, he would sound a handheld bell to warn people to clear the way. Thus, wherever we went, we walked the distance. Until one day, in the dead of night, my father woke me up asking me to come out. Reluctant and sleepy, I went out, and my sleep disappeared the moment I saw a brand-new shiny bicycle that he had brought for me. It was a Hercules bike, not the top brand, which used to be Raleigh, but that was also imported and not a Desi brand. My mother was shocked that my shoes’ excessive wear had stopped, ending my walking days. As a kid, I had a habit of kicking the pebbles on the road as I walked along. Being a right-footer, the shoe on the right foot took all the pounding. My mother used to wonder why the excessive wear and tear on the shoe was taking place only on the right foot. One day, someone solved the mystery by telling my mother about my habit of kicking the pebbles on the road as I walked.
While talking about the bicycle, I am reminded of a story that my Mama (mother’s brother), who was studying at Aligarh Muslim University, told me about his friend who belonged to a rich family from the North West Frontier Province. He used to receive his money order on the first of every month. The first thing he did was to go and buy a Raleigh bicycle, which was the most expensive brand in the market. Around the 20th of the month, he would run out of money, and the bike would promptly be sold off to raise money. Next month, again, a new Raleigh would be bought and then sold off as usual towards the end of the month when he would run out of money. A friend advised him to consider a cheaper brand, which would cost less, allowing him to save some money by the end of the month after covering all his expenses. The idea appealed to him, and he decided to buy an Indian brand called the ‘Hind Cycle,’ which was the cheapest bike available. He went to make the purchases with great enthusiasm, accompanied by his friends. Once he had paid for the bike and got on the bike, it simply did not move. Instead, under the sheer weight of the rider, it crumpled and collapsed. Since the event happened right in front of the shop, the shop owner had no option but to quietly pay back the money. Thereafter, the process of buying a new bike at the beginning and its sale towards the end of the month continued.
There were hardly any places of entertainment in the town except for two picture halls. The railway station was a huge junction, with railway lines going in five different directions. The result was that it was always busy and full of people. Those were the war days, with many military specials carrying soldiers to the Burma war front. One day we saw a train full of gorillas and wondered what role a gorilla would have in war. Those days there were no bars on the windows of the train compartment. This special train had bars on all the windows. We saw one gorilla come out of the compartment and perch himself on the roof. All efforts to coax him to get back into the compartment failed. The trainer who was accompanying the train came and managed to persuade the gorilla back, and then the train moved on. Much later, after I joined the army and read the book “The Burma Campaign,” I realized the Brits were using the gorillas to run across minefields. A mine would burst when stepped over by a gorilla and thus the mined area was cleared. The gorilla that triggered the mine died instantly.
In India, there was no common syllabus in schools. Specifically, schools in Bihar did not teach Science as a subject. One only started learning subjects like Physics, Chemistry, or Zoology at the college level. As a result, after completing high school in Bihar and joining college in Allahabad, where these subjects were included in the school syllabus, I found them to be completely new and had no prior knowledge of them. The result was that I would always lag in the class, but somehow I managed to clear the intermediate exam. At that stage, the future looked very bleak, as I did not know in which direction to proceed until I saw an advertisement in the newspaper about apprenticeship training in the Indian Naval dockyard in Mumbai. I took the entrance exam and qualified. Landing in Mumbai from a small town like Katihar, the premium metropolis of the country, was a huge jump. I looked at everything wide-eyed and in awe, not knowing what life in the most populated city in India was like. I managed to groove in with my new profession and proceeded smoothly with my studies as well. Time spent in Mumbai was the best part of my life. Keen in sports, I saw all the important matches of cricket, football, and hockey. One day I read in the newspaper that famous athlete Jesse Owens, who had created history by winning three gold medals in the 100 meters, 200 meters, and long jump in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was in town and would meet people at the Brabourne Stadium. All test matches used to take place in this cricket stadium. Jesse Owens stood near the boundary line across the wire mesh screen that separated the audience from the playing field. We stood in awe of the great man, listening to his answers to the questions that were raised by the public. We learned that Hitler refused to shake hands with him only because he was a black man. It was a strange bit of information for me.
I had never considered the army as a career until one day I saw my friend, Kulwant Malhotra, filling out a form and inquired what he was doing. He detailed the entire procedure for selecting army officers. The Services Selection Board in Bangalore conducted an interview after a written exam. The most attractive part of the process that encouraged me to apply was the free trip to Bangalore, known as the Garden City of India. However, when I discovered that the application required an examination fee of Rs 37.50, I decided not to proceed. I said, “I don’t have that kind of money to spare,” but agreed to apply when told that if I passed the written exam, Rs 30.00 would be refunded to me. This meant that the only expenditure involved was Rs 7.50. Both of us passed the written exam but went to Bangalore for the interview in different batches. He was to go on an earlier date, and I was hopeful that when he returned, he would brief me in detail about what took place at the interview. Despite his long face, he returned without providing any details about the interview process. When I got to Bangalore, I had no idea what we would do in the four days we were supposed to be there. Perhaps luck was on my side, and everything went on smoothly, and I joined the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in Dehradun in January 1956.
The fact that time flies, we only discovered in the IMA. The two years we spent there passed by quickly. I had the opportunity to meet some outstanding personalities from around the world who visited the IMA. Prominent among them were the Shah of Iran with his wife, Queen Soraya; Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia; our President at that time, Dr. Rajendra Prasad; Group Captain Cheshire of the UK; and Marshal Zhukov, the Defense Minister of the USSR. It may be noted that Group Capt. Cheshire was an observer on the American aircraft that carried the atomic bomb. The fury and intensity of the destruction were so intense that Cheshire was shocked beyond his imagination at the vast destruction that The Little Boy (code name for the atom bomb) caused. He told us that he was not briefed on the nature of the arsenal he was carrying in the aircraft. He felt guilty about the destruction that the bomb caused, and soon after he resigned from the Air Force and built charity homes around the world to take care of sick and needy people.
The Japanese were completely surprised by the Hiroshima bombing and had no answer to the newly acquired atomic bomb by the Brits, but still, they did not announce their surrender. It was only after the second bomb was dropped at Nagasaki that they announced their surrender. The bombing resulted in the loss of another 166,000 lives. We could have prevented this loss. What is more, a large number of people continued to die even later due to various ailments attributable to exposure to nuclear radiation.
Our passing-out parade from the IMA was a wonderful event. As we passed by the saluting base, our heads held high with pride, marching to the lilting tune of “Auld Lang Syne” played by the band, we felt happy and honored, leaving behind the old institution that had transformed rustic civilians like us into trained soldiers, ready to take on leadership duties in the army.
Shimla was my first posting after being commissioned, and the tenure there was quite eventful. I remember once traveling in a jeep driven by another officer that was incidentally not permitted under local orders. My friend at the wheel tried to demonstrate his driving skills by taking sharp turns that made the tires make screeching sounds. Once he lost control, the jeep landed squarely on all four wheels, some twenty feet below, on the tennis court of St. Bede’s College. It was their recess time, and a commotion broke out with girls shouting and screaming in horror on seeing what had happened. The Principal came out of her office, and my friend asked, “Mother, how do we get out of here?”
The Principal, unaware of how we arrived there, immediately responded, “Well, son, go back the same way you came in.” My friend turned around and looked back at the point where the jeep had taken off from the road. Once the details were known, a portion of the wire mesh around the tennis court was loosened a little bit to allow the jeep to come out. A The Jeep was inspected and found to be undamaged and uninjured.. Therefore, our unit never reported the incident. Much later, at a function in the unit, when we found our boss in a lighter mood, we told him about the incident. He just laughed it off, saying, “You blighters, you will never improve!”
During a chance meeting in the mall, we encountered some budding IAS aspirants who were getting basic training at the IA and AS Institute in Shimla, along with Mr. Dube, our English lecturer from the IMA. Mir Nasrullah, a teacher and the son-in-law of J&K’s Chief Minister, was one of them. We became close and often invited them over or went to their mess for a meal. When they were leaving, we hosted a farewell lunch for them at our officers’s mess in Jutogh. Mir Nasrullah told us, “If you ever come to Srinagar, don’t forget to look me up. I do not know what my job would be but I can assure you that it will be fairly important.” And why not? After all, he was the son-in-law of the Chief Minister of the State! Some years later, when we went to Srinagar for a promotion exam, we got to know that Mir Nasrullah was the Deputy Commissioner of the city. My friends encouraged me to call Mir Nasrullah, hoping he could assist us with sightseeing around Srinagar. I was a little hesitant to call him because I was not sure how he would respond. But on my friend’s insistence, I called him up. He was quite enthusiastic and asked us to meet him in the club in the evening. He took us out for an exotic dinner at one of the popular restaurants at the Bund. He also offered us the use of his personal car, along with a driver, for the next three days. We were thus able to visit Pahalgam, Gulmarg, and the major gardens in the city.
To say that time passed would be an understatement, and time was never a stagnant factor. To say that time flew would perhaps be a more appropriate description. We received postings every two years or so. During this time, we completed several professional courses at different army training institutions. Army is perhaps the only profession where one keeps on going through professional courses at regular intervals till one retires from service.
Then came the 1971 war, which was the first real test of my professional competence and acumen. I was in command of an Air Support Signal Company with H.Q. IV Corps in Tripura. The army deployed us to conduct an offensive in East Pakistan. Our job was to provide communication support for the air strikes that the army wanted from our air force. It involved a quick passage of information about the target that was to be engaged by the air force, the nature of the target, and the arsenal that we needed to neutralize the target. We were lucky that our communications never failed, and that had endeared us to the Air Force staff. When the war ended on 13th December 1971, a trip to Dacca appeared to be the top priority for everyone. Since the Pakistanis had destroyed the bridges, going by road was not an option. I had mentioned to my Air Force immediate boss that if there were any plans for a trip to Dacca, I would like to come along.
The next evening, on 14th December 1971, Wing Commander Mohan informed me that they were going to Dacca the following morning, and I immediately responded, “Yes, I will come along,” arriving promptly at the airfield the next day. He told us that the plan was to pick up a Pakistani General from a place called Bhairab Bazar and take him to Dacca. It was a mission assigned to him, and I was not connected with it in any manner. However, when we landed in Bhairab Bazar in an MI-4 helicopter, Wing Commander Mohan realized that due to delays that had happened, he could not proceed further with the mission and assigned to me the task of finding out where the Pak General was and bringing him to Dacca directly. Meanwhile, he would go back to Agartala in the helicopter, have it refueled, and send it back to me. (The entire episode of how I picked up the Pakistani General from Bhairab Bazar to Dacca is described in detail in a separate article titled “A Joy Ride To Dacca.”)
After the end of the 1971 war, I got posted to Army HQ in mid-1972, where I spent two years. It was my first posting for a general staff appointment, which was a thoroughly enjoyable and educative experience. Towards the end of 1975, I was posted in Rajasthan. During my stay there, we used to train in those very areas where the 1971 war was fiercely fought. In particular, where the famous Longewala battle was fought. It is a commanding position at a height from where one could see the area in front, which was a route for aggression by the Pakistanis for miles. We could still see the debris of Pakistani battle tanks that had been destroyed or rendered ineffective either by the Air Force or by a direct hit from our RCL guns. Before the next war began, a major sand model exercise was held in the Ramgarh area, where the possibility of Pakistani aggression by a major armored offensive was discussed threadbare. It was concluded that the soft nature of the sand in the area would make it impossible for any large-scale armored threat.
As it went, the post was held by a Company of 13 PUNJAB, commanded by Maj. Kuldip Singh Chandpuri. The plan also called for this company to leave their position on the night of 4/5 December 1971 in preparation for deployment elsewhere. When, in the evening, the rumbling sounds of a large-scale movement of tanks were heard, the plan for withdrawal of the Company was scrapped, and Chandpuri was told to firm up the defenses and regroup his Company to stop the advancing Pakistani armor at all costs. They informed him that any reinforcement could only arrive by the early morning of the following day. Chandpuri did exactly that in the short time that was available before the Pakistani attack began. (Details of the Longewala battle have been published in a separate article).
The advancing Pakistani armor stopped when they hit the barbed wire fence, thinking that the area was mined. The tanks are generally wary of antitank mines. Their advance thus stopped, and after a few probes of the flanks where Chandpuri RCL guns fired at them, they concluded that they had hit a well-organized enemy defense position and decided to wait for the dawn when they would resume their advance under active cover of their Air Force. At dawn, however, it was our Hunters, deployed at Jaisalmer airport, that came into action and played merry hell with the Pakistani tanks that were lying exposed in the open. By noon, the backbone of the Pakistani armor attack was broken, and they withdrew from the area, leaving behind scores of tanks disabled by our Air Force or by getting bogged down in the soft sand with their engines seized due to overheating. Thus, the Pakistanis faced their ultimate defeat at Longewala.
Investigating the mysterious absence of the Pakistani Air Force from the area was indeed intriguing and necessary. It led to the startling revelation that on the same night, our own Navy had launched their well-conceived “Op Trident” on Karachi harbor, which was a resounding success. The Pakistani Navy lost quite a few of their warships, which sank with the entire crew. The oil storage tank on the shore, holding a major reserve of fuel, was also destroyed. Their own Air Force thus got busy dealing with the situation, and supporting their advancing armor column in the deserts was forgotten. It is to the credit of Major Chandpuri that with the clever deployment of his limited resources, he was able to keep the Pakistani attackers at bay through the night of 4/5 December 1971, which allowed our own Air Force to do their cleaning job the next day. Chandpuri, with his sheer determination and exemplary leadership, kept the morale of his troops high against heavy odds, for which he was awarded the Maha Vir Chakra. A statue has also been erected at the Longewala post in his honor.
It was 54 years ago that the Pakistani Army let loose a reign of terror in Bangladesh, especially raping women extensively by their army personnel. The intention was to instill non-Bengali blood in the future generations of East Pakistan. Their experiment seems to have been a success, as we find the current demographic structure of the country has changed and the percentage of Pakistani sympathizers has substantially gone up. The Jamiat-e-Islami Party, which was a small group at that time and was politically banned by the Awami League when in power, has become a substantial force with the ban now lifted.
Bangladesh is on the verge of losing a substantial area on the East to the ambition of the Arakan Army, who have almost finalized the creation of a new country. Bangladesh has only themselves to blame for having spoiled its relations with India some months ago when the Shaikh Hasina government collapsed. Ever since Bangladesh came into being, Myanmar has been claiming the area around Cox Bazar to be their territory but due to India’s strong position, did not say much. Now, without India’s protective shield around them, Bangladesh faces significant challenges as they stand to lose approximately 170 square miles to the upcoming new state. It is doubtful whether India would intervene in this matter, given its substantial trade relationship with Myanmar. They export medicines, consumer goods, machinery, and steel products, which are worth over a billion US dollars in trade. In return, they get cheap natural gas from Myanmar through their terminal at Sittwe port, which would come into the territory of the new country. Then India, too, will need to maintain good relations with the new upcoming country so that their natural gas import from Myanmar goes on smoothly. In desperation, Bangladesh has imported tanks from Turkey and also some arms and ammunition from Pakistan, which may be alarming.
The end of the Second World War saw drastic changes in the political map of the world involving Asia and the Far East. It also saw the diminishing control of the Imperial UK about whom it was said that “The Sun never sets in the British Empire.” In the 20th century, significant technological developments occurred that made life easier for the average person. To name a few in technology that made the termination of the telephone line to the exchange simpler—in the telecom field, conventional telephone lines gave way to high-powered VHF sets and microwaves, ending with optical fiber, which saw the emergence of computer and IT technology that unified the whole world. You could be sitting anywhere in the world, but if you have access to the internet, you are not lost.
We saw the emergence of intercontinental ballistic missiles in space technology, which made the task of hitting targets anywhere in the world a possibility. After World War 2, the Russians had erected an iron curtain around themselves, which shielded the Russian Federation from the outside world. No one knew what was happening on the other side of the iron curtain, marking the beginning of the Cold War between the two superpowers. The US has always been anxious to contain the spread of communism, and this concern intensified when Vietnam was divided into two independent countries, North and South Vietnam, following the French withdrawal from the area. The US entered the war supporting the regime in South Vietnam, which was being threatened by the communist North Vietnam. The US got involved in a big way in the Vietnam War, which escalated further after Lyndon Johnson took over as President after John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The US however did not succeed and had to make a hasty retreat from the area for a lost cause. A large number of Vietnamese refugees also left the country and sought permanent residence in the US, and around 60,000 US troops lost their lives. To support the war effort, conscription was made compulsory, and every American youth was required to serve in the US armed forces for a minimum period of two years. Those who defied the order faced conviction. One such person was Cassius Clay (later Mohamed Ali, the boxer), who defied the order and had to face punishment.
While the war effort in Vietnam was ongoing, another significant development occurred in Cuba, located in the Caribbean Sea near the US border, where a communal government led by Fidel Castro had emerged. The then-Russian President, Nikita Khrushchev, had secretly installed nuclear missiles that brought the US mainland within its range. This happened when John F. Kennedy was the US President who reacted strongly to the Russian move and forced the Russians to remove their missiles from Cuba. One would think that Americans were sitting quietly all this while, which would be wrong. They too were up to their mischief by ensuring that they were in a position to hit Russia with nuclear weapons at a moment’s notice. This they did in 1966 by having a B-52 bomber loaded with four hydrogen bombs, each of which was a hundred times more lethal than the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima. The bomber was in the air all the time, hovering around the southern Spanish village of Almeria. The bomber underwent mid-air refueling to maintain its operational status.
In one such refueling process, both aircraft collided. The bomb dropped to the ground; fortunately, none exploded. Three of them were found, but the fourth one, which went into the Mediterranean, was discovered after a frantic search that lasted a few days. Its recovery and disarming process was a painstaking major exercise that kept everyone on tenterhooks. It was only after the device was disarmed that everyone heaved a sigh of relief. Full credit goes to the nuclear scientist who designed the bomb to ensure that no accidental detonation would ever happen. The person who presses the trigger would know what he is doing. Had one of the four bombs detonated, the damage in Spain and neighboring countries would have been catastrophic.
The end of WW2 had drastically changed the geopolitical scenario in Europe. The areas under the control of Russia became part of the Russian Federation and included East Germany. West Germany became an independent country and joined NATO. Under Marshal Tito, Yugoslavia formed a federation that included six East European countries. This period was the beginning of the Cold War, where the Iron Curtain was drawn across the Russian Federation, which lasted for around 35 years. No one knew of what was happening on the other side of the Iron Curtain.
The erection of the Berlin Wall was a result of the bifurcation between East and West Germany. While East Germany under Russian control had nothing more to offer to its people by way of job and business opportunities, West Germany was already well established in terms of business and commercial establishments and had plenty of job opportunities. The exodus of population from East to West Germany continued, in which some 2.5 million people managed to cross over in search of greater job avenues and life. With the collapse of the Iron Curtain around Russia after Stalin died, the two Germanys decided to come together around 1989-1999. Both sides agreed to bring down the Berlin Wall. One would think that it would have left behind an enormous amount of debris, but it is not so. Interestingly, every single piece of brick of the wall was purchased at a price by the emotional Germans to be displayed at their house as a grim reminder of the troubled days of the past.
The only war that was fought on the mainland of America was the American Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln was the President. Thereafter, the leadership has ensured that there will never be any wars fought on the mainland of the country. At the same time, there has never been a letup in their war effort by way of the production of lethal and destructive weapons.
Two names stand out among the names of US Presidents who caused maximum destruction the world over. The first one was Lyndon Johnson, who intensified the war effort in Vietnam, where thousands of American soldiers died. They had to make a hasty retreat with travelers boarding the aircraft as it taxied on the runway for takeoff. Along with them, also the local Vietnamese. Who can forget the image of a naked six- to seven-year-old girl standing alone on the tarmac as she just missed boarding the taxiing plane? Her parents managed to board, but she got left behind. The picture was displayed promptly in all the international newspapers, showing a lonely girl deserted by her fleeing parents. Lyndon Johnson did not fight the next election for the US presidency, where he would have certainly lost.
The next was George W. Bush, who destroyed Iraq as a country, convinced that Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president, had amassed chemical weapons in the country. The Secretary of State of the US made a statement in the United Nations to the effect that they have concrete proof of the country having chemical weapons in their possession and that justified the US attack on Iraq. Later, when the war had ended, there were no traces of Iraq having any chemical weapons, as claimed by the US. Saddam Hussein has only himself to blame for the destruction caused in his country. Stubborn as he was, he refused to allow the United Nations inspection team to visit the country to verify whether they had the chemical weapon in their possession. Who can forget that after granting pardon to his two sons-in-law, who had revolted against him, he promptly got them arrested and made them divorce his daughters and then got both of them executed? The trial court sentenced Saddam to death by hanging. The severity of the hanging caused his head to separate from his body.
Looking back at events in the recent past, reading the news of the arrest and extradition of Tahawwur Rana, a Pakistani Canadian, brings back the painful memory of the terror attack that happened in Mumbai on 26/11 in the year 2008. He was one of the masterminds who planned the attack. Such an arrest should not have come as a surprise to us, as news of such a type of attack was in the media for some time before the attack actually happened. A study of the events brings out startling revelations of inaction that happened.
For the Handlers who were sitting thousands of miles away, it was not an effortless task to control the activities of the terrorists. Their task was made easy by our media, who vied with each other on the content of reporting the event on the TV. Almost all of them occupied prominent positions from where they could observe the activities happening in the Taj Hotel. Their work was a great help to the Handlers, who, thanks to the Indian media, had the latest information on the event and could warn the terrorists involved in the attack via the Satellite phone.
We should have been aware of the type of communication system that the terrorists used and could have taken immediate action to jam it. We had the means to do this in our army. The commandos that were moved for the operation were stationed in Manesar, some 30 kilometers away from the IG airport in Delhi. The decision to relocate them to Bombay came relatively late, precisely 24 hours after the incident occurred. As if this was not bad enough, they traveled in their own caribou aircraft which is the slowest aircraft in the world, and took 4 and a half hours to travel to Mumbai, which is well under 2 hours for other commercial planes.
If only the media had immediately banned the communication system of the terrorist jam and the movement of the commandos carried out on the night of 26 November itself, I am sure the casualties that we had suffered would have been drastically reduced. The commandos quickly eliminated the terrorists holed up in the Taj Hotel. When interviewed after the event by the media, the response of the commandos was short and simple: “We only carried out the task assigned to us.” Some heads should have definitely rolled for their inaction, but sadly nothing of the sort happened.
Recounting the events of recent times, the Ukraine problem stays where it is. There has been no let-up in the intensity of the war effort in the Gaza area. The Pahelgam incident happened, and the success of our Operation Sindoor has quieted the matter for some time. The fact that the ceasefire happened within three days was a matter of immense relief to all. The US attack on Iran had alarmed everyone, and one feared that maybe this was the beginning of the third World War. Fortunately, both sides have called it a truce. Let’s hope the accord leads to a lasting peace and we have pleasant news to read in the morning newspapers.