Gone are the days!!!
When
The school reopened in June,
And we settled in our new desks and
benches!
When we queued up in book depot,
And got our new books and notes!
When we wanted two Sundays and no Mondays,
Yet managed to line up daily for the morning prayers.
We learnt writing with slates and pencils, and
Progressed To fountain pens and ball pens and then Micro tips!
When we began drawing with crayons and evolved to
Color pencils and finally sketch pens!
When we started calculating
first with tables and then with
Clarke's tables and advanced to
Calculators and computers!
When we chased one another in the
corridors in Intervals, and returned to the classrooms
Drenched in sweat!
When we had lunch in classrooms, corridors,
Playgrounds,
under the trees and even in cycle sheds!
When all the colors in the world,
Decorated the campus on the Second Saturdays!
When a single P.T. period in the week's Time Table,
Was awaited more eagerly than the monsoons!
When cricket was played with writing pads as bats,
And Neckties and socks rolled into balls!
When few played
"kabadi" and "Kho-Kho" in scorching sun,
While others simply played
"book cricket" in the
Confines of classroom!
Of fights but no conspiracies,
Of Competitions but seldom jealousy!
When we used to
watch Live Cricket telecast,
In the opposite house in Intervals and Lunch breaks!
When few rushed at 3:45 to
"Conquer" window seats in our School bus!
While few others had "Big Fun", "peppermint" ,
"kulfi", " milk ice !" and "sharbat !" at 4o Clock!
Gone are the days
Of Sports Day,
and the annual School Day ,
And the one-month long
preparations for them.
Gone are the days
Of the stressful Quarterly,
Half Yearly and Annual Exams, And the most
enjoyed holidays after them!
Gone are the days
Of tenth and twelfth standards, when
We Spent almost the whole year writing revision tests!
We learnt,
We enjoyed,
We played,
We won,
We lost,
We laughed,
We cried,
We fought,
We thought.
With so much fun in them, so many friends,
So much experience, all this and more!
Gone are the days
When we used
to talk for hours with our friends!
Now we don't have time to say a 'Hi'!
Gone are the days
When we played games on the road!
Now we
Code on the road with laptop!
Gone are the days
When we saw stars
Shining at Night!
Now we see stars when our code doesn't
Work!
Gone are the days
When we sat to chat with Friends on grounds!
Now we chat in chat rooms.....!
Gone are the days
Where we
studied just to pass!
Now we study to save our job!
Gone are the days
Where we had no money in our pockets and still fun filled on our hearts!!
Now we have the atm as well as credit card but with an empty heart!!
Gone are the days
Where we shouted on the road!
Now we don't shout even at home
Gone are the days
Where we got lectures from all!
Now we give lectures to all... like the one I'm doing now....!!
Gone are the days
But not the memories, which will be
Lingering in our hearts for ever and ever and
Ever and ever and ever .....
Gone are the Days…. But still there are lot more Days to come in our Life!!
NO MATTER HOW BUSY YOU ARE ,
DONT FORGET TO
LIVE THE LIFE THAT STILL
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
A soldier who was the bravest of the brave
Before he turned 20, Chuni Lal had already won a Sena Medal for bravery on the icy heights of the Siachen glacier. At 21,153 feet, the Siachen glacier is the world's highest and toughest battlefield. To get a sense of the height and what super human effort it must take to fight a battle there, the post that he fought to recapture was just 7,875 feet lower than Mount Everest, which is 29,000 feet tall
The young sepoy, just two years into the army, had volunteered to be a part of the operation led by the indomitable Naib Subedar Bana Singh, one of India's greatest living heroes, who himself won the Param Vir Chakra, the country's highest gallantry award for that operation.
Chuni Lal was a member of Bana Singh's team, which had the task of clearing Pakistani intruders from the post, which was almost an unbreachable glacier fortress with 1,500 feet high walls of ice on both sides. In extremely difficult circumstances, the men led by Bana Singh crawled from trench to trench and cleared the post of all infiltrators.
Twenty years after that feat of courage, by June 2007, Naib Subedar Chuni Lal had won three gallantry awards and was amongst the most highly decorated soldiers of the Indian Army.
The man from Jammu and Kashmir's Bhaderwah in Doda district -- once the hotbed of militancy -- Chuni Lal's medals and his valour are the stuff of legend. In 1999 he was awarded the Vir Chakra -- the third highest bravery award for fighting back Pakistani infiltrators in Poonch and was instrumental in killing 12 intruders as the post commander.
He also did two stints with the United Nations Peace Keeping Force in Somalia and Sudan. His team's courage under fire in Sudan won them a UN citation for valour, the only Indian battalion to be so honoured.
On June 24, 2007, Chuni Lal proved -- yet again -- what made him such an exceptional soldier. Commanding his post in Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir, at 14,000 feet with a visibility of just 5 metres and a temperature measuring minus 5 degrees, he detected some movement across the fence from the Line of Control. He quickly deployed his soldiers to stop anyone from crossing the LoC.
At 3.30 am the Indian soldiers heard some noise on the fence and challenged it. A volley of Kalishnikov fire greeted the Indian inquiry. The exchange of fire continued for almost an hour, the soldiers surrounded the whole area and searched for the terrorists till daylight broke. On finding nobody, they made way to the last remaining bushy patch -- as they approached closer, to ensure no one had crossed the fence, they were fired upon.
Chuni Lal along with his men continued to close on to the area where the terrorists were hiding and killed two of them on the spot. In the gunfire two soldiers were badly injured and lay precariously close to where the terrorists were. Risking his life Chuni Lal crawled towards them, pulled his men to safety and saved their lives. Then he took charge of the search party again.
He started searching the area, anticipating another hidden terrorist -- his hunch proved right and he saw a third terrorist trying to escape. Chuni Lal charged at him with his weapon, killing him. Unfortunately, the terrorist�s bullet tore his abdomen and left him bleeding profusely.
Unmindful of his grievous injury he took cover behind a boulder, continued firing and did not allow the other terrorists to break the cordon. Under his leadership the two remaining terrorists were also killed. At the end of the operation, five terrorists had been killed and a large amount of ammunition was recovered.
Chuni Lal had lost a lot of blood and by the time a helicopter could airlift him to hospital, the brave soldier had passed into the ages. For his exemplary courage and leadership, Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, who was not even 40 when he died, was awarded the Ashok Chakra, which is equivalent to the Param Vir Chakra, the highest award for bravery.
His rare courage will enhance the annals of Indian military history. The evening before the President of India was to present the award to his grieving wife, his commanding officer and family revealed what made him such an extraordinary soldier and why we should all be grateful to him.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
The Real Heroes
Three Army personnel will be awarded the coveted Ashok Chakra, all posthumously, by the President of India on the Republic Day. These are Col Vasanth V, Captain Harshan R, and Naib Subedar Chuni. These awards were announced last year and will be received by their next of kin.
Col Vasanth V of 9 Maratha Light Infantry laid down his life in a fire fight when he was personally leading an operation to flush out militants near Uri town in Jammu and Kashmir. He succumbed to his injuries before he reached the hospital. He is survived by his wife Subhashini, two daughters Rukmini and Yeshodha and parents Mr and Mrs Venugopal.
Col Vasanth went to school at many places in Karnataka as his father was working with the LIC. His schooling took him to Mangalore, Ooty, Udupi, Shimoga, Bangalore etc. He graduated from MES College, Bangalore. He was an ardent NCC Cadet and had also participated in a Republic Day parade at Delhi. He also visited Canada on exchange programme through the NCC.
Even as a youngster, he had expressed a desire to be in the army. Being a bright student, he had got selected to do an MBA in the prestigious IIM, but he chose to go to IMA, Dehradun as a Gentleman Cadet.
Col Vasanth – a true idealist and a man of peace – was proud to be an officer of the Indian Army till the very end. He was no armchair idealist. He read widely about military histories and strategy and would take great care to analyse the inscrutable choices that armies have made in history. He attended many seminars and talks, and listened with care to the many different voices of our nation. He was genuinely motivated by sacrifice. He was excited about commanding the 9 Maratha LI and thrilled that he would be joining them on the frontline. For Vasanth, his lifetime commitment was simple – his word and his honour. His personal life always came second.
In 1997, during a discussion with his wife, Subhashini, a Bharatnatyam dancer, Vasanth expressed that there are a lot of people speaking about the soldiers but not many who try to depict the life of the women in their lives. He felt that she should use her talent and her experiences to tell the story of the army wife. This gave the birth to The Silent Front, an organization dedicated to the widows of martyrs. Mrs Suhasini will receive the award bestowed on the gallant officer from the President.
The award will be received by his wife, Mrs Subhashini.
Captain Harshan R was born on 15 Apr 1980 at Manacaud, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. An alumnus of Sainik School, Kazhakootam, National Defence Academy (Khadakwasla) and Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Capt Harshan R volunteered for the Special Forces and was commissioned into 2 PARA (SF) in Dec 2002.
As is known from his Academy days, Harshan was both mentally and physically an outstanding officer. The officer excelled in all his courses, with a special mention to his excellent mountaineering skills which helped him to do exceedingly well in High Altitude Warfare Course. Amongst his other skills, the officer was an under water diver and an excellent cross country runner.
Capt Harshan was a tough officer blessed with uncommon tenacity which reflected in the operations conducted by him and his relentless pursuit of terrorists in the harsh confines of Lolab valley of J & K. The officer established his reputation when in the beginning of Mar 07 he single handedly eliminated two terrorists in an operation that included two top leaders of Hizbul Mujahidin of North Kashmir.
On 20 Mar 2007 the officer received specific input regarding presence of a group of hard core terrorists in Chhoti Margi area of Lolab. Without waiting a moment and despite continuous snowfall the officer rushed to the area with his troops and laid cordon of the house in the early hours of the morning. Taking advantage of a pitch dark night and poor visibility, the terrorists attempted to break cordon. Four terrorists rushed out firing and virtually came face to face with Capt Harshan. Despite being outnumbered Capt Harshan killed one terrorist on the spot, and at the process the officer received a gun shot wound on his neck and fell down. Despite his grievous injuries, the officer continued to engage the remaining terrorists before succumbing and in the process wounded a third terrorist. His valour and supreme courage inspired his colleagues to eliminate the remaining two terrorists in the same operation, one of whom was wounded by the officer.
His award is to be received by Mr K Radhakrishnan Nair, the father of this brave officer.
Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, who received Vir Chakra and Sena Medal for gallantry in earlier operations was born on Bhaderwah in 1968. During training he excelled in military subjects, displayed courage and camaraderie and showed potentials of a true soldier and joined 8 JAK LI (SIACHEN). In 1985, when he was a Sepoy, Chuni Lal volunteered for and played a crucial role in capturing the now famous Bana Top (21,153 ft) on Siachen Glacier. For this act of gallantry he was awarded Sena Medal. He became an example to emulate when in Poonch during OPERATION RAKSHAK he fought an attempted intrusion and was instrumental in beating back the attack killing 12 of the intruders. He was awarded Vir Chakra for this act of gallantry.
An asset to the organization, he represented Indian Army twice as United Nations Peacekeepers in SOMALIA in 1992 and SUDAN in 2006. He again displayed his utility and unflinching devotion to duty while serving in the difficult operational situation of Sudan as a peacekeeper. He was at the forefront in the Malakal crisis for which the battalion was awarded United Nations Unit Citation for valour. He excelled professionally and also did instructor tenure at NCC Officers Training Academy, Kamptee.
On 24 June 2007 on information about likely infiltration in Kupwara Sector he re-sited ambushes to block all escape routes. Leading from the front Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, out-maneuvered the terrorists. By killing three terrorists himself, he inspired and facilitated his small team to kill all other terrorists. The twice-decorated hero displayed exemplary gallantry courage of exceptional order and made supreme sacrifice in the highest traditions of the Army.
The award bestowed on him is to be received by his wife Chintha Devi.
Col Vasanth V of 9 Maratha Light Infantry laid down his life in a fire fight when he was personally leading an operation to flush out militants near Uri town in Jammu and Kashmir. He succumbed to his injuries before he reached the hospital. He is survived by his wife Subhashini, two daughters Rukmini and Yeshodha and parents Mr and Mrs Venugopal.
Col Vasanth went to school at many places in Karnataka as his father was working with the LIC. His schooling took him to Mangalore, Ooty, Udupi, Shimoga, Bangalore etc. He graduated from MES College, Bangalore. He was an ardent NCC Cadet and had also participated in a Republic Day parade at Delhi. He also visited Canada on exchange programme through the NCC.
Even as a youngster, he had expressed a desire to be in the army. Being a bright student, he had got selected to do an MBA in the prestigious IIM, but he chose to go to IMA, Dehradun as a Gentleman Cadet.
Col Vasanth – a true idealist and a man of peace – was proud to be an officer of the Indian Army till the very end. He was no armchair idealist. He read widely about military histories and strategy and would take great care to analyse the inscrutable choices that armies have made in history. He attended many seminars and talks, and listened with care to the many different voices of our nation. He was genuinely motivated by sacrifice. He was excited about commanding the 9 Maratha LI and thrilled that he would be joining them on the frontline. For Vasanth, his lifetime commitment was simple – his word and his honour. His personal life always came second.
In 1997, during a discussion with his wife, Subhashini, a Bharatnatyam dancer, Vasanth expressed that there are a lot of people speaking about the soldiers but not many who try to depict the life of the women in their lives. He felt that she should use her talent and her experiences to tell the story of the army wife. This gave the birth to The Silent Front, an organization dedicated to the widows of martyrs. Mrs Suhasini will receive the award bestowed on the gallant officer from the President.
The award will be received by his wife, Mrs Subhashini.
Captain Harshan R was born on 15 Apr 1980 at Manacaud, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. An alumnus of Sainik School, Kazhakootam, National Defence Academy (Khadakwasla) and Indian Military Academy, Dehradun, Capt Harshan R volunteered for the Special Forces and was commissioned into 2 PARA (SF) in Dec 2002.
As is known from his Academy days, Harshan was both mentally and physically an outstanding officer. The officer excelled in all his courses, with a special mention to his excellent mountaineering skills which helped him to do exceedingly well in High Altitude Warfare Course. Amongst his other skills, the officer was an under water diver and an excellent cross country runner.
Capt Harshan was a tough officer blessed with uncommon tenacity which reflected in the operations conducted by him and his relentless pursuit of terrorists in the harsh confines of Lolab valley of J & K. The officer established his reputation when in the beginning of Mar 07 he single handedly eliminated two terrorists in an operation that included two top leaders of Hizbul Mujahidin of North Kashmir.
On 20 Mar 2007 the officer received specific input regarding presence of a group of hard core terrorists in Chhoti Margi area of Lolab. Without waiting a moment and despite continuous snowfall the officer rushed to the area with his troops and laid cordon of the house in the early hours of the morning. Taking advantage of a pitch dark night and poor visibility, the terrorists attempted to break cordon. Four terrorists rushed out firing and virtually came face to face with Capt Harshan. Despite being outnumbered Capt Harshan killed one terrorist on the spot, and at the process the officer received a gun shot wound on his neck and fell down. Despite his grievous injuries, the officer continued to engage the remaining terrorists before succumbing and in the process wounded a third terrorist. His valour and supreme courage inspired his colleagues to eliminate the remaining two terrorists in the same operation, one of whom was wounded by the officer.
His award is to be received by Mr K Radhakrishnan Nair, the father of this brave officer.
Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, who received Vir Chakra and Sena Medal for gallantry in earlier operations was born on Bhaderwah in 1968. During training he excelled in military subjects, displayed courage and camaraderie and showed potentials of a true soldier and joined 8 JAK LI (SIACHEN). In 1985, when he was a Sepoy, Chuni Lal volunteered for and played a crucial role in capturing the now famous Bana Top (21,153 ft) on Siachen Glacier. For this act of gallantry he was awarded Sena Medal. He became an example to emulate when in Poonch during OPERATION RAKSHAK he fought an attempted intrusion and was instrumental in beating back the attack killing 12 of the intruders. He was awarded Vir Chakra for this act of gallantry.
An asset to the organization, he represented Indian Army twice as United Nations Peacekeepers in SOMALIA in 1992 and SUDAN in 2006. He again displayed his utility and unflinching devotion to duty while serving in the difficult operational situation of Sudan as a peacekeeper. He was at the forefront in the Malakal crisis for which the battalion was awarded United Nations Unit Citation for valour. He excelled professionally and also did instructor tenure at NCC Officers Training Academy, Kamptee.
On 24 June 2007 on information about likely infiltration in Kupwara Sector he re-sited ambushes to block all escape routes. Leading from the front Naib Subedar Chuni Lal, out-maneuvered the terrorists. By killing three terrorists himself, he inspired and facilitated his small team to kill all other terrorists. The twice-decorated hero displayed exemplary gallantry courage of exceptional order and made supreme sacrifice in the highest traditions of the Army.
The award bestowed on him is to be received by his wife Chintha Devi.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Pakistan: Miracle that keeps going wrong
“Pakistan, the peeling, fragmenting palimpsest, increasingly at war with itself, may be described as a failure of the dreaming mind…a miracle that went wrong.” Salman Rushdie’s old description of Pakistan has come alive again in the wake of Benazir Bhutto’s assassination and the aftermath of chaos and uncertainty. Pakistan has faced crisis after crisis from the moment of its creation, which was a miracle in more than a literary sense. But sixty years after the partition of British India and thirty six years after the severance of East Pakistan (as Bangladesh), Pakistan is a social and political reality of 162 million people who form the sixth largest national population in the world. The people of Pakistan deserve more than a failing miracle.
For the first twenty five years after partition and independence, Pakistan’s main challenge was keeping the two wings of the country, separated by a vast Indian territory, together as a nation state. The leaders of Pakistan went to extraordinarily counterproductive lengths to meet this challenge, seemingly obsessed with proving wrong the cynical Indian skepticism about Pakistan’s survivability. Their efforts failed with the breakup of old Pakistan, in 1971, into Bangladesh and the current Pakistan, and the hangovers from the failed attempts are still haunting Pakistan. In addition, new predicaments have emerged in the last thirty five years.
Both Bangladesh and Pakistan have shown their propensity to alternate between civilian and military rules, but whereas Bangladesh’s difficulties are mostly internal and often compounded by floods and famines, Pakistan’s predicaments are internal and external, national as well as international. The seamless spread of Islamic radicalism from West Asia and the involvement in the Afghan war against the Soviet Union has led to the talibanisation of Pakistani society, even as it has transformed the nature of Pakistan’s conflict with India over Kashmir. On the other hand, President Musharraf’s ‘official’ fight against the al-Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of the US retaliation against the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on America, is tearing apart Pakistani society. The country is again “at war with itself”, as Rushdie wrote earlier.
Past hangovers and new predicaments
The hangovers from the first twenty five years are also the result of Pakistan’s peculiar inheritances from British colonial rule. Chief among them were the remnants of the British Indian Army who were mostly Punjabi Muslims, and the Muslim members of the colonial bureaucracy who massively migrated to West Pakistan from Muslim-minority Provinces in India. The latter, known as Mohajirs (refugees or immigrants, whose ranks have included such famous names as Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Liquat Ali Khan, Perverz Musharraf, Javed Miandad, to name a few), who were the real instigators for a separate Muslim state, became a power unto themselves in the new Pakistan. Together with the Punjabi dominated army, Mohajirs formed the military-bureaucracy complex that has dominated Pakistan’s politics for most of its history and prevented the development of a constitutional democracy.
The main reason for foreclosing representative democracy was to prevent majority rule by East Pakistanis (Bengalis) who constituted 54% of the population. Pakistan’s leaders even contrived a one-unit arrangement in West Pakistan snuffing out the provincial, ethnic and linguistic identities of the Punjabis, Sindhis, Pashtuns and Baluchis. English was made the official language and Urdu (spoken by about 9% of the population, mostly Mohajirs) the lingua franca of the nation. Despite Jinnah’s occasional allusions to secularism, Islam was made the state religion primarily to achieve an overarching national unity. To complete the circus, Pakistan also become America’s satellite state in South Asia, a status that suited the interests of the ruling elites and was sold to the people of Pakistan as the nation’s insurance against the enemy next door, India.
It is fair to say that the development of a secular constitutional democracy became possible on the Indian side because of more diverse inheritances from colonial rule and a postcolonial leadership that was also diverse and secular in character. As Pakistani commentator Khalid Sayeed has aptly noted, between 1950 and 1958, Pakistan had seven prime ministers and one commander-in-chief, while India had one prime minister and several commanders-in-chief. India successfully enacted and adopted a new constitution soon after independence, while Pakistan took nine years to adopt its first constitution but only to have it suspended two years later, by General Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s first military ruler. The second constitution was adopted in 1973 under Bhutto’s premiership and that was set aside by General Zia-ul Haq in 1978. The third constitution adopted in 1991 is currently in force, but only in name.
During the nearly dozen years of military rule under General Ayub Khan (1959-1968) and General Yahya Khan (1968-1971), Zulifikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir’s father, emerged as a prominent civilian political leader holding a variety of ministerial positions. Belonging to the Sindhi community and hailing from a wealthy landowning family, Bhutto was educated in the West, a lawyer by training and an eloquent speaker both in English and the national languages. As Foreign Minister he passionately pleaded Pakistan’s case at the UN during the East Pakistan crisis, and when the country invariably broke up took on the task of rallying what was left as the new Pakistan.
Bhutto was Pakistan’s first long serving civilian Prime Minister. He negotiated a peace agreement with India and laid the foundation for a constitutional democracy in the country. However, he faced implacable opposition from the conservative and religious sections of Pakistanis who feared Bhutto’s progressive and secular tendencies. In the end he did not bring about any radical secular changes, and lost the support of the progressives without appeasing his religious opponents. Worse, Bhutto turned autocratic and undemocratic in dealing with political opposition and dissent. Within four years of the new constitution and election he had polarized the nation, and ethnic differences involving the Sindhis, Pashtuns, Baloch and Mohajirs, long suppressed, burst out into the open. The country was at war with itself again, and once more the military took control.
General Zia-ul Haq, a religious fundamentalist handpicked by Bhutto as the Army Chief for his supposed loyalty, ousted Bhutto him from office in 1977, and had him hanged two years later on a controversial murder charge ignoring worldwide please for clemency. Zia was isolated internationally, and found in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the opportunity to rehabilitate himself with the West. He made Pakistan the bridgehead in America’s war against the communist “evil empire” on Afghan soil. Pakistan became the conduit for supplying weapons to Taliban forces in Afghanistan, weapons purchased worldwide with American money and with China being the major supplier.
Pakistan’s role led to the emergence of what Ahmad Rashid has called “an enormous nexus of corruption” pervading the entire Pakistani establishment. Ideologically, the war in Afghanistan paralleled Zia’s brutal efforts in Pakistan to impose his version of Islamic law, and paved the way for the talibanisation of many sections of Pakistani society. After the Soviet Union’s inglorious withdrawal from Afghanistan, and with America washing its hands off the resultant mess, Pakistan was left with loads of Afghan refugees on its soil and the Taliban regime in Kabul to look after.
Daughter of destiny
Zia’s end came in a mysterious air crash in 1988, but his political nemesis, Benazir Bhutto, had been working independently to avenge the heinous hanging of her father. She was unique among South Asian leaders, female or male, in charming Western governments and media and presenting herself as their best option to bridge the clashing civilizations of Islam and the West. She established and maintained at considerable expense well-cultivated networks in Washington and London, using her contemporaries at Harvard and Oxford. According to the New York Times, Benazir understood Washington more than Washington understood her; she used Washington more than it used her in both her first and second political comings. It took Washington to convince the Pakistani military and the then acting President Gulam Ishaq Khan to invite Ms. Bhutto to form a new government, after her party won the largest number, but not a majority, of seats in the 1988 election following Zia-ul Haq’s death.
But for all her natural charm and inherited charisma, Benazir was a political failure. Even her sense of destiny sprang more from father fixation than any extraordinary sense of history or vision for the future of Pakistan, and she never quite succeeded in rallying the nation behind her. Her appeal did not go far beyond the followers of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founded by her father and now bequeathed to her son, the nineteen year old Oxford University student, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Bhutto’s two terms as Prime Minister, in 1988-1990 and 1993-1996 clearly showed that she was not only incompetent, but also autocratic and corrupt. She was thick-skinned enough to appoint her husband Asif Ali Zardari, aka Mr. 10 Percent, to her second term cabinet. Following her death, Mr. Zardari has assumed the role of being the regent for the young prince in waiting to lead the PPP, and is promising to be Pakistan’s Sonia Gandhi-looking after the (family) Party without running for election or holding public office.
Benazir’s feminism did not go deeper than her make up. As Pakistani women commentators have noted, Benazir faced monumental difficulties in being a political leader in a patriarchal society fed on religious fundamentalism, but the least a woman leader in such situations could do is to scrupulously avoid the failings of corruption and abuse of power associated with male politics. Benazir Bhutto showed notorious proclivity for both, not unlike other South Asian political heiresses. And so was her-again, not unlike her South Asian counterparts-selective understanding of democracy, that democracy is only for the country, but not for the Party. The Party leadership will always stay in the family.
Sacked half way through each of her two terms and facing criminal charges for corruption, Ms. Bhutto was forced to stay out of Pakistan for eight years, “living in splendid exile”, as a Western newspaper put it. She again used her Washington contacts to enable her return to Pakistan and share political power as Prime Minister, while General Musharraf remained President. The cynical opportunism in the arrangement was transparent and was reviled even by her supporters, but this was the only way Benazir Bhutto could have returned to Pakistan for a final attempt for power and restoration.
General Musharraf had taken control of Pakistan in 1999 in a power struggle with Bhutto’s rival successor as Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. Bhutto and Sharif were equally corrupt and inept, and the two had started meddling in military affairs to firm up their own positions. However, Musharraf’s ousting of an elected Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) did not go down well with Western powers, and Musharraf was ostracized internationally, just as Zia had been isolated earlier for hanging Bhutto. Then came the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks in the US and Musharraf seized the opportunity to rehabilitate himself, just as Zia had done after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan twenty years earlier.
This time, however, Musharraf took Pakistan in the opposite direction, against the al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and in support of the American retaliation against the Taliban government in Afghanistan. It was a bold decision that won the support of secular and moderate sections of Pakistan’s society and the wrath of religious extremists. He won praise for turning the economy around after a decade of mismanagement and corruption under Bhutto and Sharif. But all goodwill for the benign dictator evaporated when Musharraf ham-handedly took on the judiciary for ruling against his government. America’s attempt to salvage the situation by brokering a political marriage between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto has now backfired even before the ceremony could begin.
The Bush Administration is now reportedly considering new covert operations within Pakistan to prevent further destabilization of Pakistan by al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. But direct American operations are ill advised according to many in the US including the State Department, as they will only lead to a massive backlash and general instability. Musharraf for his part has indicated his opposition to any direct involvement by the US. The elections rescheduled for 18 February are unlikely to lead to a stable parliament and a new power sharing arrangement, although the consequences of not having an election could be far worse than having one.
There is no easy way out for Pakistan from its current predicaments. In its crises-ridden past, Pakistan got past each crisis by alternating between civilian and military administrations and sacking the incumbent leader as the scapegoat responsible for the crisis. Every leader reflected and personified one or the other of Pakistan’s multiple contradictions and none has left behind a positive legacy for successors to build on. Each new leader began with new support from Washington, even as each new phase began as farce and ended in tragedy, and none more so than Benazir Bhutto.
For the first twenty five years after partition and independence, Pakistan’s main challenge was keeping the two wings of the country, separated by a vast Indian territory, together as a nation state. The leaders of Pakistan went to extraordinarily counterproductive lengths to meet this challenge, seemingly obsessed with proving wrong the cynical Indian skepticism about Pakistan’s survivability. Their efforts failed with the breakup of old Pakistan, in 1971, into Bangladesh and the current Pakistan, and the hangovers from the failed attempts are still haunting Pakistan. In addition, new predicaments have emerged in the last thirty five years.
Both Bangladesh and Pakistan have shown their propensity to alternate between civilian and military rules, but whereas Bangladesh’s difficulties are mostly internal and often compounded by floods and famines, Pakistan’s predicaments are internal and external, national as well as international. The seamless spread of Islamic radicalism from West Asia and the involvement in the Afghan war against the Soviet Union has led to the talibanisation of Pakistani society, even as it has transformed the nature of Pakistan’s conflict with India over Kashmir. On the other hand, President Musharraf’s ‘official’ fight against the al-Qaeda and the Taliban, as part of the US retaliation against the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks on America, is tearing apart Pakistani society. The country is again “at war with itself”, as Rushdie wrote earlier.
Past hangovers and new predicaments
The hangovers from the first twenty five years are also the result of Pakistan’s peculiar inheritances from British colonial rule. Chief among them were the remnants of the British Indian Army who were mostly Punjabi Muslims, and the Muslim members of the colonial bureaucracy who massively migrated to West Pakistan from Muslim-minority Provinces in India. The latter, known as Mohajirs (refugees or immigrants, whose ranks have included such famous names as Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Liquat Ali Khan, Perverz Musharraf, Javed Miandad, to name a few), who were the real instigators for a separate Muslim state, became a power unto themselves in the new Pakistan. Together with the Punjabi dominated army, Mohajirs formed the military-bureaucracy complex that has dominated Pakistan’s politics for most of its history and prevented the development of a constitutional democracy.
The main reason for foreclosing representative democracy was to prevent majority rule by East Pakistanis (Bengalis) who constituted 54% of the population. Pakistan’s leaders even contrived a one-unit arrangement in West Pakistan snuffing out the provincial, ethnic and linguistic identities of the Punjabis, Sindhis, Pashtuns and Baluchis. English was made the official language and Urdu (spoken by about 9% of the population, mostly Mohajirs) the lingua franca of the nation. Despite Jinnah’s occasional allusions to secularism, Islam was made the state religion primarily to achieve an overarching national unity. To complete the circus, Pakistan also become America’s satellite state in South Asia, a status that suited the interests of the ruling elites and was sold to the people of Pakistan as the nation’s insurance against the enemy next door, India.
It is fair to say that the development of a secular constitutional democracy became possible on the Indian side because of more diverse inheritances from colonial rule and a postcolonial leadership that was also diverse and secular in character. As Pakistani commentator Khalid Sayeed has aptly noted, between 1950 and 1958, Pakistan had seven prime ministers and one commander-in-chief, while India had one prime minister and several commanders-in-chief. India successfully enacted and adopted a new constitution soon after independence, while Pakistan took nine years to adopt its first constitution but only to have it suspended two years later, by General Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s first military ruler. The second constitution was adopted in 1973 under Bhutto’s premiership and that was set aside by General Zia-ul Haq in 1978. The third constitution adopted in 1991 is currently in force, but only in name.
During the nearly dozen years of military rule under General Ayub Khan (1959-1968) and General Yahya Khan (1968-1971), Zulifikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir’s father, emerged as a prominent civilian political leader holding a variety of ministerial positions. Belonging to the Sindhi community and hailing from a wealthy landowning family, Bhutto was educated in the West, a lawyer by training and an eloquent speaker both in English and the national languages. As Foreign Minister he passionately pleaded Pakistan’s case at the UN during the East Pakistan crisis, and when the country invariably broke up took on the task of rallying what was left as the new Pakistan.
Bhutto was Pakistan’s first long serving civilian Prime Minister. He negotiated a peace agreement with India and laid the foundation for a constitutional democracy in the country. However, he faced implacable opposition from the conservative and religious sections of Pakistanis who feared Bhutto’s progressive and secular tendencies. In the end he did not bring about any radical secular changes, and lost the support of the progressives without appeasing his religious opponents. Worse, Bhutto turned autocratic and undemocratic in dealing with political opposition and dissent. Within four years of the new constitution and election he had polarized the nation, and ethnic differences involving the Sindhis, Pashtuns, Baloch and Mohajirs, long suppressed, burst out into the open. The country was at war with itself again, and once more the military took control.
General Zia-ul Haq, a religious fundamentalist handpicked by Bhutto as the Army Chief for his supposed loyalty, ousted Bhutto him from office in 1977, and had him hanged two years later on a controversial murder charge ignoring worldwide please for clemency. Zia was isolated internationally, and found in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the opportunity to rehabilitate himself with the West. He made Pakistan the bridgehead in America’s war against the communist “evil empire” on Afghan soil. Pakistan became the conduit for supplying weapons to Taliban forces in Afghanistan, weapons purchased worldwide with American money and with China being the major supplier.
Pakistan’s role led to the emergence of what Ahmad Rashid has called “an enormous nexus of corruption” pervading the entire Pakistani establishment. Ideologically, the war in Afghanistan paralleled Zia’s brutal efforts in Pakistan to impose his version of Islamic law, and paved the way for the talibanisation of many sections of Pakistani society. After the Soviet Union’s inglorious withdrawal from Afghanistan, and with America washing its hands off the resultant mess, Pakistan was left with loads of Afghan refugees on its soil and the Taliban regime in Kabul to look after.
Daughter of destiny
Zia’s end came in a mysterious air crash in 1988, but his political nemesis, Benazir Bhutto, had been working independently to avenge the heinous hanging of her father. She was unique among South Asian leaders, female or male, in charming Western governments and media and presenting herself as their best option to bridge the clashing civilizations of Islam and the West. She established and maintained at considerable expense well-cultivated networks in Washington and London, using her contemporaries at Harvard and Oxford. According to the New York Times, Benazir understood Washington more than Washington understood her; she used Washington more than it used her in both her first and second political comings. It took Washington to convince the Pakistani military and the then acting President Gulam Ishaq Khan to invite Ms. Bhutto to form a new government, after her party won the largest number, but not a majority, of seats in the 1988 election following Zia-ul Haq’s death.
But for all her natural charm and inherited charisma, Benazir was a political failure. Even her sense of destiny sprang more from father fixation than any extraordinary sense of history or vision for the future of Pakistan, and she never quite succeeded in rallying the nation behind her. Her appeal did not go far beyond the followers of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founded by her father and now bequeathed to her son, the nineteen year old Oxford University student, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Bhutto’s two terms as Prime Minister, in 1988-1990 and 1993-1996 clearly showed that she was not only incompetent, but also autocratic and corrupt. She was thick-skinned enough to appoint her husband Asif Ali Zardari, aka Mr. 10 Percent, to her second term cabinet. Following her death, Mr. Zardari has assumed the role of being the regent for the young prince in waiting to lead the PPP, and is promising to be Pakistan’s Sonia Gandhi-looking after the (family) Party without running for election or holding public office.
Benazir’s feminism did not go deeper than her make up. As Pakistani women commentators have noted, Benazir faced monumental difficulties in being a political leader in a patriarchal society fed on religious fundamentalism, but the least a woman leader in such situations could do is to scrupulously avoid the failings of corruption and abuse of power associated with male politics. Benazir Bhutto showed notorious proclivity for both, not unlike other South Asian political heiresses. And so was her-again, not unlike her South Asian counterparts-selective understanding of democracy, that democracy is only for the country, but not for the Party. The Party leadership will always stay in the family.
Sacked half way through each of her two terms and facing criminal charges for corruption, Ms. Bhutto was forced to stay out of Pakistan for eight years, “living in splendid exile”, as a Western newspaper put it. She again used her Washington contacts to enable her return to Pakistan and share political power as Prime Minister, while General Musharraf remained President. The cynical opportunism in the arrangement was transparent and was reviled even by her supporters, but this was the only way Benazir Bhutto could have returned to Pakistan for a final attempt for power and restoration.
General Musharraf had taken control of Pakistan in 1999 in a power struggle with Bhutto’s rival successor as Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif. Bhutto and Sharif were equally corrupt and inept, and the two had started meddling in military affairs to firm up their own positions. However, Musharraf’s ousting of an elected Prime Minister (Nawaz Sharif) did not go down well with Western powers, and Musharraf was ostracized internationally, just as Zia had been isolated earlier for hanging Bhutto. Then came the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks in the US and Musharraf seized the opportunity to rehabilitate himself, just as Zia had done after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan twenty years earlier.
This time, however, Musharraf took Pakistan in the opposite direction, against the al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and in support of the American retaliation against the Taliban government in Afghanistan. It was a bold decision that won the support of secular and moderate sections of Pakistan’s society and the wrath of religious extremists. He won praise for turning the economy around after a decade of mismanagement and corruption under Bhutto and Sharif. But all goodwill for the benign dictator evaporated when Musharraf ham-handedly took on the judiciary for ruling against his government. America’s attempt to salvage the situation by brokering a political marriage between Musharraf and Benazir Bhutto has now backfired even before the ceremony could begin.
The Bush Administration is now reportedly considering new covert operations within Pakistan to prevent further destabilization of Pakistan by al-Qaeda and Taliban forces. But direct American operations are ill advised according to many in the US including the State Department, as they will only lead to a massive backlash and general instability. Musharraf for his part has indicated his opposition to any direct involvement by the US. The elections rescheduled for 18 February are unlikely to lead to a stable parliament and a new power sharing arrangement, although the consequences of not having an election could be far worse than having one.
There is no easy way out for Pakistan from its current predicaments. In its crises-ridden past, Pakistan got past each crisis by alternating between civilian and military administrations and sacking the incumbent leader as the scapegoat responsible for the crisis. Every leader reflected and personified one or the other of Pakistan’s multiple contradictions and none has left behind a positive legacy for successors to build on. Each new leader began with new support from Washington, even as each new phase began as farce and ended in tragedy, and none more so than Benazir Bhutto.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
இப்படிக்கு சாஃப்ட்வேர் இன்ஜினியர்..!
இருந்தாக வேண்டிய அவசியத்தில்
இறங்கா முகங்காட்டும் வாடகைக்கு
இறுக்கத்தோடு இருக்கக் குடியேறுவது
என் விதி..
ஆசையல்ல..!
அறுசுவை அன்னம் கேட்கவில்லை.
அன்போடு ஒரு வாய்ச்சோறுதான் கேட்டோம்..
அம்மா சமையலின்
அருமையை அறியவைத்ததை அன்றி
வேறொன்றுமில்லை..
இங்கே அருந்திச்சுவைக்கும் உணவின் ஆதாயம்..!
அடைய விழைந்த கனவுகளையெல்லாம்
பரணில் போட்டுவிட்டு
அப்பா அடைந்துவிட்ட கடனையடைக்க
தரணி புகழ ரயிலேறினேன்.
விசைப்பலகையிலாடும் விரல்கள் தொட்டு
கசையடி பெற்றேனும்
கணக்கைச் சரி பார்க்கும் மூளை வரை
ஒவ்வொரு கணமும்
எப்பொழுது தொலையுமிந்த
எட்டு மணி நேர இலக்கு
என்ற போராட்டமாய்..!
காசில்லாமல் கார்டைத் தீட்டும்
ட்ரீட்டுகளும்,
தொட்டவை தொண்ணூறுகளுக்கும்
பார்ட்டிகளும்,
செலவழிப்பதற்கு வழி செய்யும்
செய்வினைகளல்ல..
கருமமாம்
கார்ப்பரேட் கல்ச்சரது
காட்டிக்கொடுத்த
கைவினைகள்..!
அகவை இருபதில்
ஆயிரங்கள் இருபது ஈட்டியதை
இசைபாடி வாழ்த்தாவிடினும்,
"நாகரீகக் கோமாளிகள்" என்று - வசமாய்
வசைபாட வந்துவிட்டனர்
எம் சகோதரர்கள்..(?!)
புரிந்து கொள்ளுங்கள்
தயைபுரிந்து..
எங்களுக்கும் இருக்கிறதென்று,
இதயமென்ற ஒன்று..!
உறவுகளைத் துறந்திருப்பினும்,
வாழ்வியலின் சிற்சில
வரைமுறைகளை மறந்திருப்பினும்,
உயிர்த்திருக்கிறோம் நாங்கள்..
பொசுக்கியெடுக்கும்
பொருளாதாரப் புகைச்சல்களினூடேயும்
எங்களை ஈன்றெடுத்து ஆளாக்கிய,
நீங்கலா உறவுகளின்
நிதிநிலையை
மேம்படுத்தத்தான்
மேற்கூறியவையனைத்தும் என்பதால்!
வெல்க பாரதம்!
இறங்கா முகங்காட்டும் வாடகைக்கு
இறுக்கத்தோடு இருக்கக் குடியேறுவது
என் விதி..
ஆசையல்ல..!
அறுசுவை அன்னம் கேட்கவில்லை.
அன்போடு ஒரு வாய்ச்சோறுதான் கேட்டோம்..
அம்மா சமையலின்
அருமையை அறியவைத்ததை அன்றி
வேறொன்றுமில்லை..
இங்கே அருந்திச்சுவைக்கும் உணவின் ஆதாயம்..!
அடைய விழைந்த கனவுகளையெல்லாம்
பரணில் போட்டுவிட்டு
அப்பா அடைந்துவிட்ட கடனையடைக்க
தரணி புகழ ரயிலேறினேன்.
விசைப்பலகையிலாடும் விரல்கள் தொட்டு
கசையடி பெற்றேனும்
கணக்கைச் சரி பார்க்கும் மூளை வரை
ஒவ்வொரு கணமும்
எப்பொழுது தொலையுமிந்த
எட்டு மணி நேர இலக்கு
என்ற போராட்டமாய்..!
காசில்லாமல் கார்டைத் தீட்டும்
ட்ரீட்டுகளும்,
தொட்டவை தொண்ணூறுகளுக்கும்
பார்ட்டிகளும்,
செலவழிப்பதற்கு வழி செய்யும்
செய்வினைகளல்ல..
கருமமாம்
கார்ப்பரேட் கல்ச்சரது
காட்டிக்கொடுத்த
கைவினைகள்..!
அகவை இருபதில்
ஆயிரங்கள் இருபது ஈட்டியதை
இசைபாடி வாழ்த்தாவிடினும்,
"நாகரீகக் கோமாளிகள்" என்று - வசமாய்
வசைபாட வந்துவிட்டனர்
எம் சகோதரர்கள்..(?!)
புரிந்து கொள்ளுங்கள்
தயைபுரிந்து..
எங்களுக்கும் இருக்கிறதென்று,
இதயமென்ற ஒன்று..!
உறவுகளைத் துறந்திருப்பினும்,
வாழ்வியலின் சிற்சில
வரைமுறைகளை மறந்திருப்பினும்,
உயிர்த்திருக்கிறோம் நாங்கள்..
பொசுக்கியெடுக்கும்
பொருளாதாரப் புகைச்சல்களினூடேயும்
எங்களை ஈன்றெடுத்து ஆளாக்கிய,
நீங்கலா உறவுகளின்
நிதிநிலையை
மேம்படுத்தத்தான்
மேற்கூறியவையனைத்தும் என்பதால்!
வெல்க பாரதம்!
Friday, December 14, 2007
Where have all our heroes gone?
Do you remember Dinesh Raghuraman? Or K P Vinay Kumar?
Unless they were your friends or family members, chances are that the names of these two army majors mean nothing to you.
Both of them died early October, fighting terrorists in Kashmir. Read story.
Both are now mere statistics: according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal or www.SATP.org, 62 members of our security forces made the ultimate sacrifice till November 21 this year.
Men in uniform, sworn to protect and to defend. And if needed, to die for the country.
I know that this is the season of goodwill and cheer, and perhaps not the time to discuss this. But then again, the officers and men protecting our borders are probably missing their families too, even as they battle terrorists and inclement weather.
I have always wondered what it takes for a person to be willing to die for the flag.
I have also wondered how the families of these usually young people react to the event. Was the sacrifice by their loved one worth it? Is their obvious grief and sorrow tinged with pride? Or is there only regret, and the obvious question: Why?
Let me come at this from another way: Do we, as a nation, understand and appreciate these sacrifices? Do we honour and cherish our heroes, for that is what they are? or do we take them for granted?
Is the token annual ceremonial salute at the Amar Jawan Jyoti all that we have for them? Is a pension and perhaps a medal all that we can offer them?
Forget the dead: do we even honour our living heroes?
This December 16 marks the 36th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh. On that day in 1971, the Pakistani army ate crow by publicly surrendering the East to General Jagjit Singh Aurora. It is often described as the Indian Army's finest hour.
But today, how many of us are aware, or even care, that the then Eastern Command chief, General JFR Jacob, the man who actually negotiated the surrender of East Pakistan in 1971, lives in a small apartment in New Delhi's Som Vihar? Today, he is not even invited for official events to commemorate the occasion.
How many of us have even heard of General Ian Cardozo, who used his khukri to sever his left foot, which was turning gangrenous after being wounded in East Pakistan during the last days of that war?
That did not stop him from becoming the first disabled officer to command an infantry battalion, when he was appointed a Colonel of the Regiment of 5 GR (FF). And subsequently commanding a brigade and a division, encouraging and setting a precedent for other war-disabled officers.
General Cardozo, who was commissioned into 1/5 Gorkha Rifles in June 1958, had also taken part in the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the war with Pakistan in 1965.
Does the loss of a foot stop him from walking ramrod straight, from regularly writing, or indulge daily in his passion, swimming, even though he is in his early eighties? No sir.
But what have we, as a nation, done for him? Zero. Zilch.
Speaking of khukris, how many of us know about Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla, who in true naval tradition, went down on December 9, 1971, with the INS Khukri, the only ship we ever lost in war?
Till the very end, he was seen frantically helping his crew to escape from the torpedoed vessel before it was swallowed by the sea.
It took a General Cardozo to write a book about this act which "upholds the highest traditions of the armed forces and exemplifies the upper limits of cold courage."
In my view, these are Our Heroes. In my view, these are the people we need to cherish, remember and salute.
Yet it took national outrage before our Service Chiefs were exempted from frisking at our airports. While our politicians (most of whom have mile-long criminal chargesheets against them), and in some cases even their distant relatives, gleefully enjoy such privileges.
What message are we sending out to our men in uniform? That the people who head our armed forces pose a security risk? While our politicians, many of whom can be compared unfavorably with the north end of south-bound cows, leave alone headless chickens, do not?
Villagers return the body of a BSF jawan killed during clashes with the Bangladesh Rifles
My blood still boils each time I recall the picture of our BSF jawans, killed by the Bangladesh Rifles during a border skirmish in April 2001, being returned trussed up on poles, as if they were animal carcasses.
But how did we, as a nation, react to this barbaric act by a small nation that we can flood at will by just opening up the sluice gates at the Farakka Barrage? Was there even a muted protest from our leaders? Not that I recall.
Because our politicians were far too concerned about the implications this would have on their vote banks. Who cares about our armed forces losing face?
Speaking at the release of his book on INS Khukri on a cold Delhi evening, General Cardozo, flanked by Captain Mulla's wife and daughter, declared: "It is sad that while the armed forces and these women lose their husbands in battle, we do not have a national war memorial. India Gate is a memorial built by the British for those who died in World War I and II.
"What have we done as a nation? We have fought wars in 1947-48, 1962, 1965 and 1971- but what do we have? An upturned rifle with a helmet on top, with Amar Jawan written on it. Is that all we can do? I believe that a nation which does not honour its war dead dishonours itself."
As we enter another year, it is important to remember that message. Otherwise, we might not remain a country worth dying for.
Unless they were your friends or family members, chances are that the names of these two army majors mean nothing to you.
Both of them died early October, fighting terrorists in Kashmir. Read story.
Both are now mere statistics: according to the South Asia Terrorism Portal or www.SATP.org, 62 members of our security forces made the ultimate sacrifice till November 21 this year.
Men in uniform, sworn to protect and to defend. And if needed, to die for the country.
I know that this is the season of goodwill and cheer, and perhaps not the time to discuss this. But then again, the officers and men protecting our borders are probably missing their families too, even as they battle terrorists and inclement weather.
I have always wondered what it takes for a person to be willing to die for the flag.
I have also wondered how the families of these usually young people react to the event. Was the sacrifice by their loved one worth it? Is their obvious grief and sorrow tinged with pride? Or is there only regret, and the obvious question: Why?
Let me come at this from another way: Do we, as a nation, understand and appreciate these sacrifices? Do we honour and cherish our heroes, for that is what they are? or do we take them for granted?
Is the token annual ceremonial salute at the Amar Jawan Jyoti all that we have for them? Is a pension and perhaps a medal all that we can offer them?
Forget the dead: do we even honour our living heroes?
This December 16 marks the 36th anniversary of the liberation of Bangladesh. On that day in 1971, the Pakistani army ate crow by publicly surrendering the East to General Jagjit Singh Aurora. It is often described as the Indian Army's finest hour.
But today, how many of us are aware, or even care, that the then Eastern Command chief, General JFR Jacob, the man who actually negotiated the surrender of East Pakistan in 1971, lives in a small apartment in New Delhi's Som Vihar? Today, he is not even invited for official events to commemorate the occasion.
How many of us have even heard of General Ian Cardozo, who used his khukri to sever his left foot, which was turning gangrenous after being wounded in East Pakistan during the last days of that war?
That did not stop him from becoming the first disabled officer to command an infantry battalion, when he was appointed a Colonel of the Regiment of 5 GR (FF). And subsequently commanding a brigade and a division, encouraging and setting a precedent for other war-disabled officers.
General Cardozo, who was commissioned into 1/5 Gorkha Rifles in June 1958, had also taken part in the Sino-Indian War of 1962 and the war with Pakistan in 1965.
Does the loss of a foot stop him from walking ramrod straight, from regularly writing, or indulge daily in his passion, swimming, even though he is in his early eighties? No sir.
But what have we, as a nation, done for him? Zero. Zilch.
Speaking of khukris, how many of us know about Captain Mahendra Nath Mulla, who in true naval tradition, went down on December 9, 1971, with the INS Khukri, the only ship we ever lost in war?
Till the very end, he was seen frantically helping his crew to escape from the torpedoed vessel before it was swallowed by the sea.
It took a General Cardozo to write a book about this act which "upholds the highest traditions of the armed forces and exemplifies the upper limits of cold courage."
In my view, these are Our Heroes. In my view, these are the people we need to cherish, remember and salute.
Yet it took national outrage before our Service Chiefs were exempted from frisking at our airports. While our politicians (most of whom have mile-long criminal chargesheets against them), and in some cases even their distant relatives, gleefully enjoy such privileges.
What message are we sending out to our men in uniform? That the people who head our armed forces pose a security risk? While our politicians, many of whom can be compared unfavorably with the north end of south-bound cows, leave alone headless chickens, do not?
Villagers return the body of a BSF jawan killed during clashes with the Bangladesh Rifles
My blood still boils each time I recall the picture of our BSF jawans, killed by the Bangladesh Rifles during a border skirmish in April 2001, being returned trussed up on poles, as if they were animal carcasses.
But how did we, as a nation, react to this barbaric act by a small nation that we can flood at will by just opening up the sluice gates at the Farakka Barrage? Was there even a muted protest from our leaders? Not that I recall.
Because our politicians were far too concerned about the implications this would have on their vote banks. Who cares about our armed forces losing face?
Speaking at the release of his book on INS Khukri on a cold Delhi evening, General Cardozo, flanked by Captain Mulla's wife and daughter, declared: "It is sad that while the armed forces and these women lose their husbands in battle, we do not have a national war memorial. India Gate is a memorial built by the British for those who died in World War I and II.
"What have we done as a nation? We have fought wars in 1947-48, 1962, 1965 and 1971- but what do we have? An upturned rifle with a helmet on top, with Amar Jawan written on it. Is that all we can do? I believe that a nation which does not honour its war dead dishonours itself."
As we enter another year, it is important to remember that message. Otherwise, we might not remain a country worth dying for.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Even if hungry tigers do not eat grass
There are two sayings in Tamil about the four - legged tiger or “puli” . One is “Puli pathunguvathu paaivathatku” (The tiger crouches only to pounce).
The other is “Puli pasithaalum pullai thinnaathu” (Even if hungry tigers do not eat grass).
The essence of this proverbial wisdom can be applied to the two - legged tigers too. Past history of The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) demonstrates that.
If the LTTE is unusually quiet for a while people suspect that the tigers are plotting a surprise operation. A sudden strike is imminent it is felt. Likewise however much the tigers are hard - pressed the LTTE does not give up or change its policies easily.
It is against this backdrop that last week’s audacious assault by the LTTE on the Sri Lanka Air Force base at Anuradhapura needs to be viewed.
Recent events led to an impression that the LTTE was on the decline . Aggressive propaganda by the Rajapakse regime contributed greatly to this opinon being moulded.
The tigers had lost the East completely; they gave up Mannar South without a fight;they were hard - pressed on multiple fronts in the North having to face limited millitary offensives continuously;tiger controlled areas were being regularly bombed and shelled and claims were being made that LTTE targets were severely hit ; Colombo and other areas in the South were quiet and memory of past tiger operations were waning; coordinated action by several western governments against key tiger activists was constricting fund raising abroad ; successful strikes by the navy against LTTE ships were being regularly reported.
In such a situation the Government of Sri Lanka’s (GOSL) boasts that the tigers were on their last legs found many believers.Some observers of the LTTE - including this writer - found it difficult to accept this dominant line of thought. The tigers were down but certainly not out they stated. It was only a matter of time before the LTTE launched a counter - offensive or counter - strike they felt.
This prediction came true on Monday October 22nd!
Twenty - One black tiger commandoes engaged in a nocturnal assault on the Air Force base at Saliyapura, Anuradhapura. They dominated the base for nearly eight hours and destroyed several aircraft. In what was described as a co-ordinated land and air attack two planes of the LTTE’s nascent air force dropped bombs too. 14 security forces and all 21 tigers were killed.The greatest casualty was the image propagated by the GOSL that the LTTE was a spent force!
The tigers are engaged in asymmetrical warfare against the GOSL security forces. The LTTE is at a disadvantage vis a vis the GOSL in manpower, airpower, seapower, firepower, armour power etc. Given this imbalance the tigers would prefer to fight a defensive war rather than go on the offensive. What is important for the LTTE is the retention of some territory at least as a “rear “base. But the security forces are knocking at the gates. So the tigers need to conduct some guerilla strikes at least and reduce the military threat.
With this overall objective in mind , LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabakharan , has set in motion plans for many military projects. Preparations were - and are - on for several guerilla operations. One such strike was “Operation Ellalan” named after the Tamil monarch who reigned in Anuradhapura for 44 years .
A group of twenty - five “black tigers” were given specialised training for the “operation Ellalan” project for nearly six months. The squad studied maps and models of the Saliyapura Air base without being told it was at Anuradhapura. Elaborate reconnaissance missions known as “recce” had gone on for more than a year. Information and knowledge had been carefully gathered, processed, checked and confirmed.Attack motions were carefully rehearsed and simulation exercises conducted.
This team of black tigers was put together from different branches of the LTTE. They had all volunteered to become “Karumpuligal” (panthers) or suicide cadres. After being selected for a specific mission the black tigers are given specific training required for the particular mission. The “Ellalan operation” cadres got training at a secret location of the Lt. Col Rayan academy for tiger special forces. The project co-ordinator was a senior leader whose nom de guerre is Kalaikone.
21 of the 25 were picked as the final team after training was over. Tiger leader Prabakharan met the team for a meal in the second week of October. He posed for photos with the cadres destined for death. The photos are released after the operation is over. Usually LTTE cadres are promoted post- humously.
But in a departure from this practice black tigers are told of their posthumous promotions and given their new ranks while alive. This may be a method to enthuse cadres and attract more volunteers for the black tigers.
The pseudonyms, real names, new ranks and their districts of origin are stated below:
Lt. Col. Veeman (K. Pratheepan) from Trincomalee , Captain Panchaseelan (S.Kajendran) from Batticaloa ,Major Kanikkeethan (R. Kandasamy) from Batticaloa ,Lt. Col. Ilangko (R. Paheerathan) from Jaffna ,Major Mathivathanan (B. Thayaaseelan) from Jaffna ,Captain Puradchi (S. Thanushan) from Jaffna ,Major Supan (K. Jeevakanthan) from Jaffna , Major Ilampuli (T. Kalairaj) from Jaffna , Captain Pukazhmani (T. Puvaneasvaran) from Jaffna ,Captain Eezhaththeavan (T. Moasikaran) from Jaffna ,Major Ezhilinpan (V. Pirapaharan) from Jaffna ,Captain Pulimannan (K. Nanthakumar) from Jaffna , Captain Senthooran (K. Thinesh) from Jaffna , Lt. Arun (P. Thivaakaran) from Jaffna ,Captain Eezhappiriya (K. Keethanchali) from Jaffna , Capatain Arivumalar (S. Uthaya) from Jaffna ,Captain Tharmini (K. Nirmala) from Ki’linochchi ,Major Kaavalan (S. Saththiyan) from Ki’linochchi ,Captain Karuveanthan (M. Satheeskumaar) from Ki’linochchi , Captain Anpukkathir (V. Thileepkumar) from Mullaiththeevu and Captain Subesan (N. Maharaj) from Mannaar .
The mission commander was Paheerathan alias Ilango. His deputy was Pratheepan alias Veeman. Three of the squad were girls. Thirteen of the team were from Jaffna, three from Kilinochchi, two from Batticaloa and one each from Trincomalee, Mannar and Mullaitheevu districts. The senior most cadre was the squad’s commander Lt. Col Ilango who was 26 years old. He had joined the LTTE in 1995 and had participated in more than a dozen major battles including those of “Jayasikurui”. The junior was 17 year old Lt. Arun who was recruited in early 2006.
The black tiger team was asked to write letters to their loved ones on October 9th. These letters would be given to family members only after the operation was over. When family members read the “last” letters the person who wrote that epistle would not be among the living. The families would not have prior knowledge that their loved one had embarked on a black tiger mission.
Once D- day was finalised the black tigers would start off on their secret mission. Usually they would be accompanied and even guided by the intelligence wing members up to a point. Those involved in reconnaissance would take them to their destination and lodge them in “safehouses” for a while. They would have travelled lightly and would receive supplies and be given their arsenal shortly before H- hour.
It is believed that the “Operation Ellalan” squad travelled through jungle areas of Mannar - Wilpattu - Tantrimale -Anuradhapura etc to reach their target destination. Kajendran alias Panchaseelan was reportedly responsible for guiding his colleagues through jungle routes . Apparently he had travelled those routes earlier as preparation. Omanthai the norther province entry - exit point between GOSL and LTTE areas is about 60 km away from Anuuradhapura. The Saliyapura Air Force base is about 4 km from Anuradhapura city.
It is not clear as to where the tigers stayed in Anuradhapura prior to the attack. It is suspected that they used the grand “Gajaba Cross” motor show to mingle with nearly 100, 000 spectators who converged in Anuradhapura on Sunday October 21st. They had then allegedly proceeded from the Pillaiyar junction towards Nuwarawewa and reportedly walked by the tank bund. It is suspected that the black tigers hid themselves in a patch of shrub jungle bordering a small coconut grove before zooming on to their target.
It was around 2. 20 - 30 am in the early hours of Monday morning that the tiger squad crossed the Nelumkulama road and arrived at the North - Eastern side of the base.There is a three - tiered barbed wire fence. The outer and inner wires are quite thick while the thinner middle wire is electrified. The tigers cut through all three and entered without being electrocuted.. Apparently the power supply to the electric fence had been turned off earlier. Why this happened remains a suspicious mystery!
There was also a system of sound mines installed alongside the paths and also at strategic points. The tigers however seemed to know everything and swiftly de- commissioned them. Expansion work was on at the runway and mounds of earth and sand were heaped at a particular spot. The squad took cover behind those mounds and also moved their arsenal there. This spot became their field headquarters.
This arsenal consisted of T-56 ’s, Rocket propelled grenade launchers. Light Anti - tank weapons. multi - purpose machine guns, light machine guns, handgrenades etc. There was also a communications wireless operated by Thayalaseelan alias Mathivathanan. The black tigers used cellular phones to communicate among themselves during the operation.
The Anuradhapura air base is strategically important for a number of reasons. The biggest pilot training school is set up there. The aerial surveillance headquarters is also there.The base is home to the first flying training wing squadron; the sixth and seventh transport and training helicopter squadrons;the ninth attack helicopter squadron, the 11th UAV “drone” squadron and the 14th aerial surveillance squadron.
Several types of aircraft like the Beechcraft 200, RQ - 2 pioneer and IAI Scout Unmanned Aerial vehicles are kept here. These are used for Reconnaissance and maritime patrol; Mi 24 and Mi 35 “Hind” attack helicopters as well as Mi 17 and Bell 206 helicopters used for transport,training and logistic support are also stationed here. There also K - 8 Karakorum, Cessna 150 and Nanchang CJ6 primary training aircraft (PT6).
After the LTTE’s airwing sprouted wings the Anuradhapura air base gained greater importance. An elaborate radar system capable of monitoring the Northern skies and north - eastern seas has been installed. The Beechcraft is also of great utility value being capable of staying in the skies for marathon hours to monitor the seas. The Navy has benefited immensely. Anuradhapura base was the aerial surveillance headquarters apart from providing basic pilot training and also limited advanced training. It was also logistically important to ferry men and materials to and from the Mannar, Vavuniya and Weli - Oya/Manalaaru battlefronts.
With these strategic objectives in mind the tigers got to work. Zero hour was 3 am. The LTTE broke up into two main teams and began operations. Though the overall commander was Illango he headed a 7 member team. The second in command Veeman led a 14 member team. Both teams broke into smaller groups to implement specific duties.
The top priority was to mop up the four sentry points and two guard posts. This was done quickly. Thereafter the radar surveillance unit was seized and neutralised. The communications room was also knocked out.The other objective was to seize control of the air defence system and artillery units. Two 40 mm ,two 23mm artillery guns were seized . The 12.7 m anti aircraft guns were also taken. In 20 minutes the artillery and anti - aircraft guns , radars, communications and guard posts - sentry points were all taken over.
By this time sleeping airforce personnel were alarmed and began retaliating. There had been heavy partying on Sunday night due to the Gajaba cross motoring event and also because base commandant , Group captain Priyantha Gunasinghe was on the eve of retirement. Another diversion was the “Sri Laka Idol” program on Sirasa TV. Still airmen began responding bravely.
LTTE snipers climbed trees and began sniping at the elevated watchtower and command and control tower Flight Lt. Ruwan Kumara Wijeratna was killed near the tower. An Armoured Personnel carrier moved in blazing. A tiger cadre fired an anti - tank weapon at point blank range hitting the gunner and damaging the APC.
The three girls Eezhapriya, Arivumalar and Tharmini were trained in artillery. They took over the big guns and began firing them. Eehapriya apparently was a gunner of great ability. A tiger trio set up cut - out points at key positions and engaged in covering fire. Two tiger formations began to move into the hangars and destroy the helicopters , fixed wing aircraft and also the UAV drones. At least eight aircraft were totally demolished. Another nine were extensively damaged. Ten other aircraft damaged partially are in working condition.
Meanwhile the LTTE “control” in the Wanni was regularly informed of developments. Once it became known that the radars were knocked out and air defence system neutralised ,two small planes of the LTTE’s fledgling air wing started out from the Wanni. The airforce personnel saw the planes as they came close but were helpless as the anti - aircraft gun could not be used. The aircraft too could not be flown.
At this point of time A’pura base commandant informed Vavuniya commander Maj - Gen Upali Edirisinghe of the situation and tiger planes. Two Bell 212 helicopters set out from Vavuniya but friendly fire from a military camp in Mihintale hit one copter which crashed down at Doramadalawa about 11 km away from the Saliyapura airbase. All four crew were killed. The other copter turned back.
LTTE planes flew in and dropped two bombs each. One fell near the airbase hangar. The other three were dropped around the nearby army camp housing Gajaba regiment troops. One fell on a billet. One fell on the parapet wall surrounding a school and one fell on a field killing about 12 buffaloes. The idea apparently was to target the army camp and prevent soldiers coming to the aid of the airmen.
But the soldiers upon hearing of the tiger attack had set out from camp but were unable to do much because of the night’s darkness. They could not fire indiscriminately for fear of hitting the airmen. But the soldiers took up positions in the general area outside the camp and virtually surrounded it.
The bombing by tiger planes did not make any significant contribution to the assault on the air base apart from deterring troop movement for some time. Its symbolic effect however was immense. Taking possession of an air base. neutralising anti - aircraft guns and then bringing two planes to drop bombs over the very same base is well and truly an exercise of audacity.
The LTTE was showing that their nascent air force was still active and that the Sri Lankan security forces were incapable of restricting its movements in spite of boastful claims. The Lankan air force base was attacked by the Tamil Eelam air force was the message sought to be conveyed. Most media reports refer to the assault as a Land and Air co-ordinated attack. There was also confusion that the air attack preceded the ground attack.
A handful of tiger guerillas not only caused much destruction but also fought resolutely for nearly eight hours in the midst of the base. Two Gajaba special force contingents led by Major Chandimal Peiris and Capt Kosala Munasinghe arrived at daybreak at the base. Once the SF got into action the tide began to turn against the tigers.
The black tiger operational leader Lt. Col Ilango succumbed to injuries and died at 8. 30 am. At about 9 am Maj. Mathivathanan was killed. With that communication between the Wanni and combat zone ended. The fighting began subsiding gradually and finally ended at about 11. 30 am. Six tigers including the No two Lt. Col Veeman blew themselves up at the end. The Airbase was cleared of tigers who were in action for nearly eight hours. All 21 black tigers courted death as destined.
Wing Commander Amila Mohotti, Squadron Leader Ruwan Wijeratne, Flight Lieutenant A.B.M.Silva, Flying Officer S.R.Siyambalapitiya, Warrant Officer KPS Dayaratne, Corporal M.P.W. Deegalla, Corporal W.M.Warnakulasuriya, Corporal .M.W.Dissanayake, Corporal E.P.N. Dayaratne, Corporal Preethikumara, Lance Corporal H.E.N.D.Fernando, Lance Corporal Gunawardane of the Air Force and Lance Corporal R.J.S. Ratnayake of Gajaba Regiment of the Army paid the supreme sacrifice during the incident.
[Members of Sri Lanka’s Air Force march at a funeral procession of wing commander Amila Mohotti in Kurunagala, north central Sri Lanka, October 26, 2007 - Reuters Via Yahoo! News Pic: Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi]
Four of them died in a helicopter crash when it was rushing to help fighting troops at the base. One more Airman of the Air Force, Sergeant Asvedduma breathed his last late monday (22) night while being treated at Anuradhapura hospital after he was admitted with severe injuries. Accordingly, fourteen brave men of the Armed Forces perished as a result of the incident. A total of twenty two members of the Armed Forces are still receiving treatment in hospitals. About fifty - five are classified as walking wounded.
A large number of aircraft were destroyed or damaged. Peter Foster the Colombo correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” of London has reported that the Black Tigers destroyed an expensive Beechcraft surveillance plane worth £14 million, two Mi17 helicopters, two Mi24 helicopters, three unmanned aerial vehicles, a K-8 jet and eight trainer aircraft.
The LTTE however says “officially” that only eight aircraft were destroyed. Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan the LTTE defence spokesperson explained this discrepancy to a Tamil journalist by saying that they had lost communication with the attack squad at 9 am. At that time eight was the figure. He said that subsequently more damage was done. It is indeed a strange situation when the LTTE claims a low figure while sections of the media and opposition quote a much higher figure.
The LTTE is exploiting the attack and sacrifice for propaganda purposes. Major Mathivathanan was given a special post-humous promotion and made Lt. Colonel. Ceremonies paying tribute to the twenty one “martyrs” were conducted in many parts of the Wanni. Incidently one of the black tiger bodies was not recovered as it was very badly mangled. The 20 recovered bodies were paraded in a naked state by the Anuradhapura Police and buried.
[LTTE cadres and civilians paying homage to the Black Tigers in Ki’linochchi - Photo: LTTEPS]
Let me conclude by quoting from a recent article on the attack by B. Raman, retired additional cabinet secretary of India. Raman is by no means an acolyte of the LTTE and has often criticised the tigers severely. This is what he had to say:
” Reliable details of the combined air and land attack launched by the LTTE on the Anuradhapura air base of the Sri Lankan Air Force early in the morning of October 22, 2007, indicate that it was neither an act of desperation as projected by the embarrassed Sri Lankan military spokesmen nor an act of needless dramatics as suggested by others. It was an act of unbelievable determination, bravery and precision successfully carried out by a 21-member suicide commando group of the Black Tigers-significantly led by a Tamil from the Eastern Province-with the back-up support of two planes of the so-called Tamil Eelam Air Force. ”
” Reliable Western sources say that no other terrorist organisation in the world would have been capable of organising such a raid, which had been preceded by painstaking intelligence collection, planning and rehearsal. The commandoes, divided into groups, infiltrated into the air base from two directions and, within 20 minutes, took the security guards by surprise, overwhelmed them, seized their weapons and communication equipment, neutralised a radar and an anti-aircraft gun position and then intimated their headquarters that they were in effective control of the air base. Only then the two aircraft of the LTTE’s air wing flew to Anuradhapura and dropped two bombs on the base and flew back safely to their hide-out.”
” The successful operation would seem to have been launched by the LTTE in retaliation for the recent operations of the Sri Lankan Navy against the transport ships of the LTTE and the air strikes of the SLAF over LTTE positions in the Northern Province. It once again underlines the LTTE’s reputation as an organisation with a tremendous tenacity of purpose, grit and sophistication in thinking and planning. Its recent set-backs have not weakened its morale. They have only redoubled its determination to keep fighting for its political objective unmindful of the losses in the Eastern Province.
The other is “Puli pasithaalum pullai thinnaathu” (Even if hungry tigers do not eat grass).
The essence of this proverbial wisdom can be applied to the two - legged tigers too. Past history of The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) demonstrates that.
If the LTTE is unusually quiet for a while people suspect that the tigers are plotting a surprise operation. A sudden strike is imminent it is felt. Likewise however much the tigers are hard - pressed the LTTE does not give up or change its policies easily.
It is against this backdrop that last week’s audacious assault by the LTTE on the Sri Lanka Air Force base at Anuradhapura needs to be viewed.
Recent events led to an impression that the LTTE was on the decline . Aggressive propaganda by the Rajapakse regime contributed greatly to this opinon being moulded.
The tigers had lost the East completely; they gave up Mannar South without a fight;they were hard - pressed on multiple fronts in the North having to face limited millitary offensives continuously;tiger controlled areas were being regularly bombed and shelled and claims were being made that LTTE targets were severely hit ; Colombo and other areas in the South were quiet and memory of past tiger operations were waning; coordinated action by several western governments against key tiger activists was constricting fund raising abroad ; successful strikes by the navy against LTTE ships were being regularly reported.
In such a situation the Government of Sri Lanka’s (GOSL) boasts that the tigers were on their last legs found many believers.Some observers of the LTTE - including this writer - found it difficult to accept this dominant line of thought. The tigers were down but certainly not out they stated. It was only a matter of time before the LTTE launched a counter - offensive or counter - strike they felt.
This prediction came true on Monday October 22nd!
Twenty - One black tiger commandoes engaged in a nocturnal assault on the Air Force base at Saliyapura, Anuradhapura. They dominated the base for nearly eight hours and destroyed several aircraft. In what was described as a co-ordinated land and air attack two planes of the LTTE’s nascent air force dropped bombs too. 14 security forces and all 21 tigers were killed.The greatest casualty was the image propagated by the GOSL that the LTTE was a spent force!
The tigers are engaged in asymmetrical warfare against the GOSL security forces. The LTTE is at a disadvantage vis a vis the GOSL in manpower, airpower, seapower, firepower, armour power etc. Given this imbalance the tigers would prefer to fight a defensive war rather than go on the offensive. What is important for the LTTE is the retention of some territory at least as a “rear “base. But the security forces are knocking at the gates. So the tigers need to conduct some guerilla strikes at least and reduce the military threat.
With this overall objective in mind , LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabakharan , has set in motion plans for many military projects. Preparations were - and are - on for several guerilla operations. One such strike was “Operation Ellalan” named after the Tamil monarch who reigned in Anuradhapura for 44 years .
A group of twenty - five “black tigers” were given specialised training for the “operation Ellalan” project for nearly six months. The squad studied maps and models of the Saliyapura Air base without being told it was at Anuradhapura. Elaborate reconnaissance missions known as “recce” had gone on for more than a year. Information and knowledge had been carefully gathered, processed, checked and confirmed.Attack motions were carefully rehearsed and simulation exercises conducted.
This team of black tigers was put together from different branches of the LTTE. They had all volunteered to become “Karumpuligal” (panthers) or suicide cadres. After being selected for a specific mission the black tigers are given specific training required for the particular mission. The “Ellalan operation” cadres got training at a secret location of the Lt. Col Rayan academy for tiger special forces. The project co-ordinator was a senior leader whose nom de guerre is Kalaikone.
21 of the 25 were picked as the final team after training was over. Tiger leader Prabakharan met the team for a meal in the second week of October. He posed for photos with the cadres destined for death. The photos are released after the operation is over. Usually LTTE cadres are promoted post- humously.
But in a departure from this practice black tigers are told of their posthumous promotions and given their new ranks while alive. This may be a method to enthuse cadres and attract more volunteers for the black tigers.
The pseudonyms, real names, new ranks and their districts of origin are stated below:
Lt. Col. Veeman (K. Pratheepan) from Trincomalee , Captain Panchaseelan (S.Kajendran) from Batticaloa ,Major Kanikkeethan (R. Kandasamy) from Batticaloa ,Lt. Col. Ilangko (R. Paheerathan) from Jaffna ,Major Mathivathanan (B. Thayaaseelan) from Jaffna ,Captain Puradchi (S. Thanushan) from Jaffna ,Major Supan (K. Jeevakanthan) from Jaffna , Major Ilampuli (T. Kalairaj) from Jaffna , Captain Pukazhmani (T. Puvaneasvaran) from Jaffna ,Captain Eezhaththeavan (T. Moasikaran) from Jaffna ,Major Ezhilinpan (V. Pirapaharan) from Jaffna ,Captain Pulimannan (K. Nanthakumar) from Jaffna , Captain Senthooran (K. Thinesh) from Jaffna , Lt. Arun (P. Thivaakaran) from Jaffna ,Captain Eezhappiriya (K. Keethanchali) from Jaffna , Capatain Arivumalar (S. Uthaya) from Jaffna ,Captain Tharmini (K. Nirmala) from Ki’linochchi ,Major Kaavalan (S. Saththiyan) from Ki’linochchi ,Captain Karuveanthan (M. Satheeskumaar) from Ki’linochchi , Captain Anpukkathir (V. Thileepkumar) from Mullaiththeevu and Captain Subesan (N. Maharaj) from Mannaar .
The mission commander was Paheerathan alias Ilango. His deputy was Pratheepan alias Veeman. Three of the squad were girls. Thirteen of the team were from Jaffna, three from Kilinochchi, two from Batticaloa and one each from Trincomalee, Mannar and Mullaitheevu districts. The senior most cadre was the squad’s commander Lt. Col Ilango who was 26 years old. He had joined the LTTE in 1995 and had participated in more than a dozen major battles including those of “Jayasikurui”. The junior was 17 year old Lt. Arun who was recruited in early 2006.
The black tiger team was asked to write letters to their loved ones on October 9th. These letters would be given to family members only after the operation was over. When family members read the “last” letters the person who wrote that epistle would not be among the living. The families would not have prior knowledge that their loved one had embarked on a black tiger mission.
Once D- day was finalised the black tigers would start off on their secret mission. Usually they would be accompanied and even guided by the intelligence wing members up to a point. Those involved in reconnaissance would take them to their destination and lodge them in “safehouses” for a while. They would have travelled lightly and would receive supplies and be given their arsenal shortly before H- hour.
It is believed that the “Operation Ellalan” squad travelled through jungle areas of Mannar - Wilpattu - Tantrimale -Anuradhapura etc to reach their target destination. Kajendran alias Panchaseelan was reportedly responsible for guiding his colleagues through jungle routes . Apparently he had travelled those routes earlier as preparation. Omanthai the norther province entry - exit point between GOSL and LTTE areas is about 60 km away from Anuuradhapura. The Saliyapura Air Force base is about 4 km from Anuradhapura city.
It is not clear as to where the tigers stayed in Anuradhapura prior to the attack. It is suspected that they used the grand “Gajaba Cross” motor show to mingle with nearly 100, 000 spectators who converged in Anuradhapura on Sunday October 21st. They had then allegedly proceeded from the Pillaiyar junction towards Nuwarawewa and reportedly walked by the tank bund. It is suspected that the black tigers hid themselves in a patch of shrub jungle bordering a small coconut grove before zooming on to their target.
It was around 2. 20 - 30 am in the early hours of Monday morning that the tiger squad crossed the Nelumkulama road and arrived at the North - Eastern side of the base.There is a three - tiered barbed wire fence. The outer and inner wires are quite thick while the thinner middle wire is electrified. The tigers cut through all three and entered without being electrocuted.. Apparently the power supply to the electric fence had been turned off earlier. Why this happened remains a suspicious mystery!
There was also a system of sound mines installed alongside the paths and also at strategic points. The tigers however seemed to know everything and swiftly de- commissioned them. Expansion work was on at the runway and mounds of earth and sand were heaped at a particular spot. The squad took cover behind those mounds and also moved their arsenal there. This spot became their field headquarters.
This arsenal consisted of T-56 ’s, Rocket propelled grenade launchers. Light Anti - tank weapons. multi - purpose machine guns, light machine guns, handgrenades etc. There was also a communications wireless operated by Thayalaseelan alias Mathivathanan. The black tigers used cellular phones to communicate among themselves during the operation.
The Anuradhapura air base is strategically important for a number of reasons. The biggest pilot training school is set up there. The aerial surveillance headquarters is also there.The base is home to the first flying training wing squadron; the sixth and seventh transport and training helicopter squadrons;the ninth attack helicopter squadron, the 11th UAV “drone” squadron and the 14th aerial surveillance squadron.
Several types of aircraft like the Beechcraft 200, RQ - 2 pioneer and IAI Scout Unmanned Aerial vehicles are kept here. These are used for Reconnaissance and maritime patrol; Mi 24 and Mi 35 “Hind” attack helicopters as well as Mi 17 and Bell 206 helicopters used for transport,training and logistic support are also stationed here. There also K - 8 Karakorum, Cessna 150 and Nanchang CJ6 primary training aircraft (PT6).
After the LTTE’s airwing sprouted wings the Anuradhapura air base gained greater importance. An elaborate radar system capable of monitoring the Northern skies and north - eastern seas has been installed. The Beechcraft is also of great utility value being capable of staying in the skies for marathon hours to monitor the seas. The Navy has benefited immensely. Anuradhapura base was the aerial surveillance headquarters apart from providing basic pilot training and also limited advanced training. It was also logistically important to ferry men and materials to and from the Mannar, Vavuniya and Weli - Oya/Manalaaru battlefronts.
With these strategic objectives in mind the tigers got to work. Zero hour was 3 am. The LTTE broke up into two main teams and began operations. Though the overall commander was Illango he headed a 7 member team. The second in command Veeman led a 14 member team. Both teams broke into smaller groups to implement specific duties.
The top priority was to mop up the four sentry points and two guard posts. This was done quickly. Thereafter the radar surveillance unit was seized and neutralised. The communications room was also knocked out.The other objective was to seize control of the air defence system and artillery units. Two 40 mm ,two 23mm artillery guns were seized . The 12.7 m anti aircraft guns were also taken. In 20 minutes the artillery and anti - aircraft guns , radars, communications and guard posts - sentry points were all taken over.
By this time sleeping airforce personnel were alarmed and began retaliating. There had been heavy partying on Sunday night due to the Gajaba cross motoring event and also because base commandant , Group captain Priyantha Gunasinghe was on the eve of retirement. Another diversion was the “Sri Laka Idol” program on Sirasa TV. Still airmen began responding bravely.
LTTE snipers climbed trees and began sniping at the elevated watchtower and command and control tower Flight Lt. Ruwan Kumara Wijeratna was killed near the tower. An Armoured Personnel carrier moved in blazing. A tiger cadre fired an anti - tank weapon at point blank range hitting the gunner and damaging the APC.
The three girls Eezhapriya, Arivumalar and Tharmini were trained in artillery. They took over the big guns and began firing them. Eehapriya apparently was a gunner of great ability. A tiger trio set up cut - out points at key positions and engaged in covering fire. Two tiger formations began to move into the hangars and destroy the helicopters , fixed wing aircraft and also the UAV drones. At least eight aircraft were totally demolished. Another nine were extensively damaged. Ten other aircraft damaged partially are in working condition.
Meanwhile the LTTE “control” in the Wanni was regularly informed of developments. Once it became known that the radars were knocked out and air defence system neutralised ,two small planes of the LTTE’s fledgling air wing started out from the Wanni. The airforce personnel saw the planes as they came close but were helpless as the anti - aircraft gun could not be used. The aircraft too could not be flown.
At this point of time A’pura base commandant informed Vavuniya commander Maj - Gen Upali Edirisinghe of the situation and tiger planes. Two Bell 212 helicopters set out from Vavuniya but friendly fire from a military camp in Mihintale hit one copter which crashed down at Doramadalawa about 11 km away from the Saliyapura airbase. All four crew were killed. The other copter turned back.
LTTE planes flew in and dropped two bombs each. One fell near the airbase hangar. The other three were dropped around the nearby army camp housing Gajaba regiment troops. One fell on a billet. One fell on the parapet wall surrounding a school and one fell on a field killing about 12 buffaloes. The idea apparently was to target the army camp and prevent soldiers coming to the aid of the airmen.
But the soldiers upon hearing of the tiger attack had set out from camp but were unable to do much because of the night’s darkness. They could not fire indiscriminately for fear of hitting the airmen. But the soldiers took up positions in the general area outside the camp and virtually surrounded it.
The bombing by tiger planes did not make any significant contribution to the assault on the air base apart from deterring troop movement for some time. Its symbolic effect however was immense. Taking possession of an air base. neutralising anti - aircraft guns and then bringing two planes to drop bombs over the very same base is well and truly an exercise of audacity.
The LTTE was showing that their nascent air force was still active and that the Sri Lankan security forces were incapable of restricting its movements in spite of boastful claims. The Lankan air force base was attacked by the Tamil Eelam air force was the message sought to be conveyed. Most media reports refer to the assault as a Land and Air co-ordinated attack. There was also confusion that the air attack preceded the ground attack.
A handful of tiger guerillas not only caused much destruction but also fought resolutely for nearly eight hours in the midst of the base. Two Gajaba special force contingents led by Major Chandimal Peiris and Capt Kosala Munasinghe arrived at daybreak at the base. Once the SF got into action the tide began to turn against the tigers.
The black tiger operational leader Lt. Col Ilango succumbed to injuries and died at 8. 30 am. At about 9 am Maj. Mathivathanan was killed. With that communication between the Wanni and combat zone ended. The fighting began subsiding gradually and finally ended at about 11. 30 am. Six tigers including the No two Lt. Col Veeman blew themselves up at the end. The Airbase was cleared of tigers who were in action for nearly eight hours. All 21 black tigers courted death as destined.
Wing Commander Amila Mohotti, Squadron Leader Ruwan Wijeratne, Flight Lieutenant A.B.M.Silva, Flying Officer S.R.Siyambalapitiya, Warrant Officer KPS Dayaratne, Corporal M.P.W. Deegalla, Corporal W.M.Warnakulasuriya, Corporal .M.W.Dissanayake, Corporal E.P.N. Dayaratne, Corporal Preethikumara, Lance Corporal H.E.N.D.Fernando, Lance Corporal Gunawardane of the Air Force and Lance Corporal R.J.S. Ratnayake of Gajaba Regiment of the Army paid the supreme sacrifice during the incident.
[Members of Sri Lanka’s Air Force march at a funeral procession of wing commander Amila Mohotti in Kurunagala, north central Sri Lanka, October 26, 2007 - Reuters Via Yahoo! News Pic: Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi]
Four of them died in a helicopter crash when it was rushing to help fighting troops at the base. One more Airman of the Air Force, Sergeant Asvedduma breathed his last late monday (22) night while being treated at Anuradhapura hospital after he was admitted with severe injuries. Accordingly, fourteen brave men of the Armed Forces perished as a result of the incident. A total of twenty two members of the Armed Forces are still receiving treatment in hospitals. About fifty - five are classified as walking wounded.
A large number of aircraft were destroyed or damaged. Peter Foster the Colombo correspondent of the “Daily Telegraph” of London has reported that the Black Tigers destroyed an expensive Beechcraft surveillance plane worth £14 million, two Mi17 helicopters, two Mi24 helicopters, three unmanned aerial vehicles, a K-8 jet and eight trainer aircraft.
The LTTE however says “officially” that only eight aircraft were destroyed. Rasiah Ilanthiraiyan the LTTE defence spokesperson explained this discrepancy to a Tamil journalist by saying that they had lost communication with the attack squad at 9 am. At that time eight was the figure. He said that subsequently more damage was done. It is indeed a strange situation when the LTTE claims a low figure while sections of the media and opposition quote a much higher figure.
The LTTE is exploiting the attack and sacrifice for propaganda purposes. Major Mathivathanan was given a special post-humous promotion and made Lt. Colonel. Ceremonies paying tribute to the twenty one “martyrs” were conducted in many parts of the Wanni. Incidently one of the black tiger bodies was not recovered as it was very badly mangled. The 20 recovered bodies were paraded in a naked state by the Anuradhapura Police and buried.
[LTTE cadres and civilians paying homage to the Black Tigers in Ki’linochchi - Photo: LTTEPS]
Let me conclude by quoting from a recent article on the attack by B. Raman, retired additional cabinet secretary of India. Raman is by no means an acolyte of the LTTE and has often criticised the tigers severely. This is what he had to say:
” Reliable details of the combined air and land attack launched by the LTTE on the Anuradhapura air base of the Sri Lankan Air Force early in the morning of October 22, 2007, indicate that it was neither an act of desperation as projected by the embarrassed Sri Lankan military spokesmen nor an act of needless dramatics as suggested by others. It was an act of unbelievable determination, bravery and precision successfully carried out by a 21-member suicide commando group of the Black Tigers-significantly led by a Tamil from the Eastern Province-with the back-up support of two planes of the so-called Tamil Eelam Air Force. ”
” Reliable Western sources say that no other terrorist organisation in the world would have been capable of organising such a raid, which had been preceded by painstaking intelligence collection, planning and rehearsal. The commandoes, divided into groups, infiltrated into the air base from two directions and, within 20 minutes, took the security guards by surprise, overwhelmed them, seized their weapons and communication equipment, neutralised a radar and an anti-aircraft gun position and then intimated their headquarters that they were in effective control of the air base. Only then the two aircraft of the LTTE’s air wing flew to Anuradhapura and dropped two bombs on the base and flew back safely to their hide-out.”
” The successful operation would seem to have been launched by the LTTE in retaliation for the recent operations of the Sri Lankan Navy against the transport ships of the LTTE and the air strikes of the SLAF over LTTE positions in the Northern Province. It once again underlines the LTTE’s reputation as an organisation with a tremendous tenacity of purpose, grit and sophistication in thinking and planning. Its recent set-backs have not weakened its morale. They have only redoubled its determination to keep fighting for its political objective unmindful of the losses in the Eastern Province.
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