Gurdaspur, Pathankot, and now Uri: Yet another Indian Army Base was ambushed again. And yet again, for over two days since the heavily armed militants stormed a battalion headquarters of the Indian Army in north Kashmir's Uri, killing at least 17 soldiers and injuring 10 other personnel, all Indians including some attention seeking politicians are baying for Pakistan's blood.
The Hindustan Times highlights that the incident was the single deadliest attack on the Indian Army in at least 26 years. As expected, given the proximity of the attack to the Line of Control (LoC), the line demarcating India-administered and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, and the sophistication of the fidayeen (suicide squad) attackers, Indian leaders were swift in blaming Pakistan. Basis a primary research, the Indian authorities believe that Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), the same group responsible for the strike earlier this year on the Pathankot Air Force base in Punjab, carried out the Uri strike. The Pathankot attack, along with the July 2015 attack on a police station in Gurdaspur in Punjab, highlights a growing frequency of high-profile fidayeen attacks against hard targets. All three attacks have come in relatively quick succession after a relative lull in alleged Pakistan-sponsored attacks in India after the 2008 Mumbai attack, which, by contrast, involved a large-scale coordinated strike against softer civilian targets. It is also believed that the time and place of the Uri attack is of special significance since the Indian Army is already facing criticism for its heavy-handed tactics in suppressing protesters in Kashmir following the killing of Burhan Wani, a Hizbul Mujahideen militant, earlier this summer. It is said that this attack is timed by Pakistan to move the international focus to the Kashmir-issue.
But, all this is for political analysts to probe. What I am appalled by is the fact that the entire nation is screaming for a war. So much so that you cannot not tell anyone that this issue should be looked at more objectively. There was this article in the Hindustan Times which mentioned which state three of our slain soldiers belonged to. While most of the people commenting on the story were asking India to open a war against Pakistan and take not just Kashmir back but also Pakistan over, I had simply commented that mentioning the regions or religions plays to divide people and that what is important is that all the soldiers who lost their lives were brave and courageous. I did not mention "war" or "Pakistan" and was therefore called out as a "bloody liberal Hindu". I think it is insane - the whole reaction to the situation is insane.
I want to understand how waging a war against Pakistan will solve our internal problem of failure of our national intelligence services to identify a security breach. Because that is exactly what this was - a security breach and a mega failure to identify the same. Be it Gurdaspur or Pathankot or Uri, in all cases a bunch of fidayeens not only cross border but enter heavily armed and supposedly secure areas and kill our very well trained soldiers. And what's more abominable is that every successive attack in this series has been deadlier and more ghastly than the previous one. This only means that they are not only growing more confident by the day but they also realise that the Indian Intelligence system is probably not equipped even now to identify the contravention. This is what we need to counter; this is what we need to work out; and this is what we need to tackle right now before the next big lapse and loss of our brave lives. No Sirs and Ma'ams, we don't need a war against Pakistan. We need a drastic and expeditious improvement in our intelligence networks. Let's put our time, effort, money and focus at the right place - at the root cause. The war against Pakistan would only lead to more problems, political, social and financial. Even if we assume we go ahead and accomplish what all Indians are shouting, we take Kashmir back and even add Pakistan to our territory; we would only be bringing in terrorists from across the borders to within are own and that's not a very smart thing to do seriously.
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