Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor
I would like to correct a factual mistake in my January 2003 article, “Professionalism and Discipline of Armed Forces in a Society with Repeated Military Interventions – Case of Pakistani Armed Forces”. It was mentioned that during a clash between army soldiers and policemen in Mardan, a policeman was killed in the encounter. As communicated to the author by a gentleman close to the inquiry of the incident, the policeman’s death was due to heart attack and not due to bullet wound. The deceased policeman was around fifty, somewhat overweight and with history of cardiac problems.
I apologize for my mistake and thank the respected gentleman for correction of my mistake. I greatly appreciate any corrections, criticism and comments from the readers.

Dear Editor
At this important juncture of modern era history, I would like to highlight the biased, one sided and intensive campaign in the Jewish led and financed US media against France, Germany and all those countries and its people who are directly or indirectly opposing the war against Iraq. The bulk of US newspapers, periodicals, magazines, weeklies and journals are also following the same policy.
In almost all the talk shows on the TV as well as radio channels over here, the hosts are drumming up the beats of war against Iraq, supporting the viewpoint of the Bush Administration with full force and intensity. Anybody saying anything against the war is directly or indirectly termed as a non-patriotic person, which in essence is not only dangerous and non-American, it is also against the American Constitution, American dream and the Fundamental Values and Principles spearheaded by great George Washington and other forefathers and foremothers 226 years ago, on the basis of which the foundations of this great country were laid.
For sure, future historians would term this era as one of the darkest and shameful times of US history.
We as an insignificant, ineffective and trifle minority living in this country can only pray to Allah Almighty to grant the wisdom, fortitude and understanding to Bush Jr. and his junta to refrain from killing innocent Muslims in Afghanistan, Iraq or any other country of the world in the guise of peace, freedom and liberty and shamefully terming it as “Collateral Damage”
Let all people on this beautiful planet of Allah Almighty called earth live in peace and harmony. Instead of war the people at the helm of running the affairs of the world should invest in its people. The UN Security Council should unanimously adopt a “No War Resolution” all over the world and strict sanctions should be imposed against those countries who try to defy it.

Thanks and Best Regards
Sincerely,
Aamir A. Salaria

Excavation of Ayodhya
Vide a news item published widely, an Indian Court has ordered excavation at the site of the razed Babri Mosque in Ayodhya to determine if a Hindu temple existed under it. In other words, the court has allowed to remove even the left-over portion of the historical mosque existing now in the demolished form. The Hindu extremists will be too happy to remove the remnants of the grand structure as in its present form it reflects the barbaric agenda of Hindutva and the ruling BJP. The court should have insisted on keeping the status quo of the mosque structure.
In fact, there is no need to carry out an excavation exercise as the archaeological investigation has already been done by the Government of India. For the information of Government and the Muslims of India, it is submitted that one Professor B.B.Lal had carried out excavations in 1970, on behalf of Survey of India. He contradicted the stand of VJP (Vishwa Hindu Parishad) that there ever was a temple. The excavations did not show any evidence of existence of any temple at the site of Babri Masjid. There was also a report based on a study of some independent historians and archaeologists who also did not agree with VHP’s contention.
According to the report, an eleven-metres long trench was dug at the disputed site but the ruins of any palace or structure was not found. The Indian Government, however, never made this report public as it never wanted confrontation with the fanatic Hindus. Fourteen sites were dug in Ayodhya, but no figurine of Rama was found. Some Hindu leaders have also argued that the actual Ayodhya ruled by Rama was washed away in the floods. If Rama’s Ayodhya has been washed away, then it cannot be found underneath the Babri Mosque. The court decision, if implemented, will only result in removing all signs of the Muslims’ mosque so mercilessly massacred by the Mahatma Gandhi’s Hindus.

Brig (Retd) A Q Anjum
2, Anjum Lane, Nadir Street,
Adiala Road, Rawalpindi.
Tel No. 5571056
E mail aqanjum@hotmail.com

I have following submissions regarding assertions made in the subject article:—

The author states that the right time to launch the counter offensive was “between 21 November and 25 November 71” .
This is disputable since by end October 1971 the Indian 1 Corps and other Indian strategic reserves were fully deployed in all areas opposite West Pakistan.
As a matter of fact the ideal time to launch the counter offensive with the strategic aim of saving East Pakistan was October 1971 and not November 1971. At this time Indian Army was still in its peace locations and no less a person than the then GOC Western Front acknowledged this fact once he stated “The most critical period was between 8 and 26 October when 1 Corps and 1 Armoured Division were still outside Western Command. Had Pakistan put in a pre-emptive attack during that period, the consequences would have been too dreadful to contemplate and all our efforts during the war would have been spent in trying to correct the adverse situation forced on us.” (Refers-Page-28-The Western Front-Lt Gen P.K Candeth-Allied Publishers-New Delhi-1984).
2. Area of the Attack :— Area of the planned counter offensive was not Ravi-Sutlej Corridor as asserted by the author but area Fazilka-Hanumangarh-Muktsar-Bhatinda all south of Sutlej River.This was why the main Pakistani reserves were concentrated south of Sutlej i.e 7 Div at Bahawalnagar and 1st Armoured Division in Minchinabad-Bahawalnagar.
3. The author states that :— “In the Kashmir war 1947-48, inspite of overwhelming superiority, the Indian forces had failed to recapture the territory controlled by the Mujahideens and the units of Pakistan Army”.

This is an incorrect assertion. The statement is relative. As an example the following territories were re-captured by Indian Army in 1947-48 War :—

1. Entire stretch between Rajauri and Poonch some plus sixty miles held by Pakistan Army regular units and Mujahids.

The statement is true to the extent that the power of modern defensive weapons is such that overwhelming superiority is required to recapture enemy held territory.
The sum of the whole assertion about Lost Opportunities that “Pakistan could have saved East Pakistan only if its higher command had the courage to foresee ...strategic vision to foresee that East Pakistan could be saved only if a pre-emptive attack was launched on the Western Front in October 1971 while the Indian Army was still in its peace locations.
Unfortunately, this strategic vision was sadly lacking.
By November 1971 in words of Candeth, Yahya had missed the boat (Ibid).
The answer to Pakistan’s dilemma was a bold attack and only a bold all out attack could have forced India to drop the idea of invading East Pakistan. Long ago Clausewitz well summed up the solution for states like Pakistan in 1971 when he said ‘Offensive war, that is the taking advantage of the present moment, is always commanded when the future holds out a better prospect not to ourselves but to our adversary’. In this case the future had better prospects for India and Pakistan’s only hope was an all out offensive posture. Clausewitz defined the solution in yet more detail in the following words ‘Let us suppose a small state is involved in a contest with a very superior power, and foresees that with each year its position will become worse: should it not; if war is inevitable, make use of the time when its situation is furthest from worst? Then it must attack, not because the attack in itself ensures any advantages – it will rather increase the disparity of forces – but because this state is under the necessity of either bringing the matter completely to an issue before the worst time arrives or of gaining at least in the meantime some advantages which it may hereafter turn to account”.
Only a Napoleon or a Frederick could have saved Pakistan in 1971 from being divided and humiliated and cut to size! There were potential Napoleons and Fredericks in the Pakistan Army in 1947-48 but these were systematically sidelined or weeded out from 1950 to 1958. A conspiracy against originality and boldness! Ironically the political situation that the
Pakistan Army inherited was created once the West Pakistan Civil Servants and the then army C in C had ganged up in the period 1951-58 to keep the much despised Bengali in his place! The civilians did well in creating the 1956 Constitution which solved all major political problems of Pakistan. The politicians were, however, never allowed to implement this constitution since its implementation through holding of a general election in 1959 may have led to an East Bengali victory, thus seriously reducing the civil-military dominance of Pakistani politics. Thus martial law was imposed in 1958 to avoid a general election! Ironically the army finally saw the light of the day a bit too late once a martial law was imposed in 1969 to hold a general election! The tide of history in these 11 years had become irreversible! Strategic insight could at best have averted total humiliation! But there was no strategic insight since Ayub Khan had ensured from 1950 to 1969 that no strategic insight should be groomed and cultivated!

First Step
US imposes sanctions on trade with KRL. Watch out everyone. Could it be the first step towards destroying the WMDs of Pakistan ?

Truly
Col. Riaz Jafri (Retd)
30, Westridge-1,
Rawalpindi 46000
Tel: (051) 546 3344
E.Mail: jafri@rifiela.com

From: “vishwajit mukherji” <vish79@rediffmail.com>
To: <defjrnl@pathfinder.com.pk>
Sent: Saturday, April 05, 2003 3:37 PM
Subject: Your March Issue: India – Towards Fundamentalism

Dear Editor:
I am an ardent reader of Pakistan Defence Journal on the web, for past 2 years and have found it very interesting and instructive all along.
I wholeheartedly admire your efforts to bring an impartial and reasonably true picture of Pakistan’s Defence forces.
As for the article titled “India – Towards Fundamentalism” by Columnist Humera Niazi, I would certainly agree to some extent that fundamentalism is creeping into Indian national politics but being an Indian (Delhi-ite) myself I and many of us feel this is a fallout of deliberate appeasement policies of successive governments.
While saying this, I definitely would like to make a point that most of the population in general are secular and actually don’t care much about one’s religion except when ghastly incidents make headlines on national newspapers.
Much has been said and written about Gujarat and why as an Indian I feel to speak out on this particular article (India – Towards Fundamentalism) is because this is probably the sanest and most dispassionate analysis of those unfortunate incidents and its aftermath.
The past congress governments for the past 50 years has followed a policy of so-called ‘upliftment’ of minorities as a whole comprising of job-quotas, subsidised education which includes opening schools and universities. But sadly enough, these efforts have not proved up to the mark. Looking community-wise, Sikhs – who are by nature hard working have progressed more than any other community. Educated Hindus as well as Muslims too have made it quite well off by themselves. But all the while they have done it on their own. The so-called government help has been availed by very few. States like Andra Pradesh and Kerala too has progressed due to their own endeavour. So, we have seen whether the government takes care of anyone be it minority or majority doesn’t make much of a difference because progress in India depends on individual efforts. But what has been constantly opposed in a timid way and recently in a rather violent fashion is a policy of constant appeasement of minorities by trying to allocate more funds and facilities for them which has not proved to be very beneficial for them either as I mentioned that development depends on the will of an individual. On the contrary it has fuelled resentment that in this poor country why some selected sections should be given special treatment when everyone should have equal opportunity.
These sentiments which I think are quite justified has been exploited recently by a bunch of scoundrels (read politicians) to suite their own political agenda. Its not that people of Gujarat are more communal minded than the rest of India but it was just an unfortunate incident that this planned experiment was performed in that part of the country. My point can be tested from the fact that all this time the rest of the country including Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal – which have sizeable Muslim population were calm. So people in India are essentially secular and want to keep the country like that. I hope you would agree that there are hot-heads in every society so it is possible that unfortunate events may occur sometimes but we feel that it can be taken in the stride.

Of late, I am taking keen interest in your Defence Journal which comes out once a month. I am somewhat surprised to find some of the articles that are published, highly revealing in regards to events leading to the creation of Bangladesh.
There has never been a practice in Pakistan of accepting facts. In fact, failure to do so, broke Pakistan into two. Even if there was ever a confession in Pakistan’s twenty three and half years of history preceding to 1971, that injustices were done to the Bengalis, Pakistan perhaps could have saved itself. Because from this confession, a realisation would have had emerged and this could have taken its root at the national level for correction.
Pathfinders of Pakistan were the Bengali Muslims in general and its leaders in particular, including Sk Mujibur Rahman. In Calcutta, as a student leader, he actively participated in Pakistan Movement and marched on foot to Delhi with the Muslim League volunteers chanting slogans, “Larke Lenge Pakistan”.
When leaders (Muslim) of the west were still in confusion in regards to creation of a homeland for the Muslims of the sub-continent, Bengali leaders spearheaded the concept of Pakistan and Lahore Resolution of 1940, is the historical evidence of Bengali perception of independent Pakistan, when leaders of Frontier and Balochistan including Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan were opposed to such ideas or concepts and had remained inclined to a ‘united India’ concept.
I am not saying that Khan Sahib was wrong. His concept had emerged from a different school of thought and if India’s peoples had been totally secular, perhaps a ‘united India’ would have been much viable as a country.
Desire of the Bengali Muslims was independence and their long struggle projects this desire which leaders and rulers of Pakistan had failed to understand. In fact, rulers of Pakistan took it for granted that the Bengalis, nothing in common other than religion, would continue to accept their hegemony indefinitely, not realising that if the Benagalis could defy and fight the British and emerge independent with the population of Western Indian Muslims, why they would not rise again and lead their future for not having their aspirations fulfilled. This proves how bankrupt the rulers of Pakistan were in terms of a national democratic philosophy.
I am glad that some writers and some newspapers in Pakistan have started to do some soul searching and revealing some facts which are kind of self-criticism, which we expected from intellectuals of Pakistan way back.
I would like to congratulate Columnist Hamid Hussain for his article, “Demons of December – Road from East Pakistan to Bangladesh”. In this, he indeed made some revelations which perhaps, no one in Pakistan did before. We in fact, would like to see some more of these kind of articles, with more detailed revelations, published in Pakistan. This will firstly, introduce in Pakistan a culture of self-criticism, which never was in existence in Pakistan’s total history. Secondly, this will infuse in Pakistani intellectuals an essence of a democratic philosophy of some kind, a democratic courage in particular. This atleast will encourage and nourish a beginning.
In this instance, I will like to draw your attention to Major Nadir Pervaiz’s interview published, in which he passed certain remarks against the Bengalis.
Major Nadir Pervaiz was my instructor in the PMA Kakul (Ghaznavi Company – 22nd War Course). As an instructor, he was excellent, no doubt. But his activities in Patuakhali during the War of Liberation of Bangladesh, was most condemnable. He failed to project his qualities of a teacher. His acts were primitive, barbaric and immoral. In fact, he was one of the wanted war criminals for trial.
I suggest through this letter for him to read Hamid Hussain’s ‘Demons of December’ in which he will find his contradictions.
Lastly, he gave some fabricated facts in the interview. He mentioned that General Ershad and General Zia – both were in Barisal and it was due to his brave actions that they had fled. General Ershad had not participated in the Liberation War of Bangladesh. He was a Lt Col during 71, and was commanding 7 East Bengal Regiment in West Pakistan. General Zia was never in Barisal during the entire period of the Liberation War. He was commanding a Brigade of regular troops in the north of Bangladesh.

* Retired Major of Bangladesh Army and writer of the Book ‘Judhey Judhey Swadhinata’ (Nine Months to Freedom).