Five good men that could have chosen to do anything with lives, chose instead to serve their country and when that wasn’t enough, chose to sacrifice their all for their Bharat Mata. These five sons of India were slain while trying to get the better of alleged Pakistan-sponsored terrorists in the Bazi Mal Upper forests of the Rajouri district of South Kashmir.
These five gallants, Captain MV Pranjal, Captain Shubham Gupta, Havildar Abdul Majid, Lance Naik Sanjay Bisht and Paratrooper Sachin Laur have left behind five grieving, shattered families.
At Captain Gupta’s home in Agra, they say that nobody expected him to join the forces. But he responded to a higher calling. Captain Gupta’s father, forcing back his tears, can only bring himself to say, “I am proud that I am known by my son’s name…”
And that name is Captain Gupta. Never forget.
In Bengaluru, Captain Pranjal’s father M Venkatesh said that his son had secured a seat in the city’s RV Engineering College but opted to join the army instead. On December 9 Captain Pranjal would have been promoted to the rank of Major.
The distraught M Venkatesh says, “We were waiting for his call, but now we are going to receive his dead body.”
Make no mistake these officers and the three other soldiers were killed by bigotry. By the mujahideen of a twisted idea of Islamist supremacism that is intent on waging a declared Ghazwa-e-Hind.
These words will exercise a lot of people who will with heartless whataboutery shoot the messenger. The favored tool is to label truth speakers jingoists hell bent upon stirring the communal pot.
Then in an attempt to change the goal posts they will say that the state is supposed to do a better job of anticipating terror attacks. That a professional force would have instituted better protocols to lower the toll on our forces.
While the latter questions are undoubtably legitimate and need to be posed to the authorities, the fact is that no army, even the most vigilant, can stop religious extremists’ intent on carrying out suicide missions.
Last month, on October 7, in Israel this became amply clear. Then radicalized Islamists poured into Israel undetected across arguably the world’s most militarized border.
The truth is ugly when it is unvarnished. And the truth is that the Lashkar-E-Toiba and other terrorist groups sponsored by Pakistan are sworn to the establishment of a caliphate across Hindustan.
The need of the hour today is to draw attention to the real problem in Kashmir. Which is that the only thing standing between India and a durable peace in the Union Territory is the wall of Islamist supremacism.
The wall can only be breached through a mix of united political and public activism. Sadly, weighed down by electoral expediency and a false sense of loyalty, this unified response has never come.
But what if these parties and their supporters had poured out onto the streets of Srinagar or Delhi or Mumbai or Malappuram holding up “not in my name” placards? What if they had denounced India designated terror sponsor Pakistan by name?
It isn’t as if they don’t have the agency. They are the very same people who marched against alleged Israeli “apartheid and bigotry” for Palestinians. And no one can deny that the collective weight of protest isn’t having the effect of causing Israel to at least temper its aggression.
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