Potrait
of Bravery
Excellence of Sikhism, Sarup S. Alag
Maj. General M. Khan of Pakistan wrote
in his book 'Crisis of Leadership' about the bravery of the
Sikh soldiers during the Indo-Pak war. Here are some excerpts:
"....the main reason of our defeat
was Sikhs fighting facing us. We were helpless to do anything
in front of them. Sikhs are very brave and they have a great
craving for martyrdom. They fight so fiercely that they are
capable of defeating an army many times bigger than theirs."
"....On 3rd December 1971, we fiercely
and vigorously attacked the Indian army with our infantry brigade
near Hussainiwala border. This brigade included Pakistan army's
fighter Punjabi regiment together with the Baloch regiment.
Within minutes we pushed the Indian army quite far back. Their
defence posts fell under our control. The Indian army was retreating
back very fast and the Pakistani army was going forward with
a great speed. Our army reached near the Kausre-Hind post. There
was a small segment of the Indian army appointed to defend that
post and their soldiers belonged to the Sikh Regiment. A few
number of the Sikh Regiment stopped our way forward like an
iron wall. They loudly greeted us with the ovation of 'Bole-so-Nihal'
and attacked us like blood thirsty hungry lions and hawks. All
these soldiers were Sikhs. There was even a dreadful hand-to-hand
battle. The sky filled with roars of 'Yaa Ali' and 'Sat-Siri-Akal'.
Even in this hand-to-hand fighting the Sikhs fought so bravely
that all our desires, aspirations and dreams were shattered."
".....In this war Lt. Col Gulab Hussain
of Baloch Regiment got killed. With him Major Mohammed Zaeef
and Captain Arif Alim also died. It was difficult to count the
number of soldiers who got killed. We were astonished to see
the courage of those handful of Sikh soldiers. When we seized
the possession of the three-storey defence post of concrete,
the Sikh soldiers went onto the roof and kept on persistently
opposing us. The whole night they kept on showering fires on
us and continued shouting the loud ovation of 'Sat-Siri-Akal'.
These Sikh soldiers kept on the encounter till the next day.
Next day the Pakistani tanks surrounded this post and bombed
it with guns. Those handful of Sikhs got martyred in this encounter
while resisting us, but other Sikh soldiers then destroyed our
tanks with the help of their artillery. Fighting with great
bravery they kept on marching forward and thus our army lost
its foothold."
"....Alas, a handful of Sikhs converted
our great victory into a big defeat and shattered our confidence
and courage. ."
"....The same thing happened with
us in Dhaka(Bangladesh). In the battle of Jaissur, the Singhs
opposed the Pakistani army so fiercely that our backbone and
our foothold was lost. This became the main and important reason
of our defeat and the Sikhs' fancy for martyrdom and mockery
with death for the sake of safety and honour of the country,
became the sole cause of their victory."
Similar type of comments were made by
Pakistani army in East Pakistan under the leadership of General
Niazi while surrendering their weapons to General Jagjit Singh
Arora. The bravery and spirit of sacrifice of Sikhs were respected
and honoured by one and all.
May God rest the souls of all the fallen
soldiers (Sikhs and Pakistanis), in peace.
Thought:
"Sawa Lakh se ek laraun,
chirian to(n) main baaj taranun,
tabhe Gobind Singh naam kahaun"
(Unless I raise one to stand against many, cause sparrow spurn
hawk,
I shall not deserve to be called Gobind Singh.)
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