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Thursday March 28, 2024

Days to remember

Random thoughtsEvery year the Pakistani nation celebrates the 6th of September with great fervour, and rightly so, as in 1965 the Pakistan armed forces valiantly defended our country against heavy odds. The Indians had, quite unexpectedly, violated the internal boundary near Lahore and had managed to penetrate a few kilometres

By Dr A Q Khan
September 14, 2015
Random thoughts
Every year the Pakistani nation celebrates the 6th of September with great fervour, and rightly so, as in 1965 the Pakistan armed forces valiantly defended our country against heavy odds.
The Indians had, quite unexpectedly, violated the internal boundary near Lahore and had managed to penetrate a few kilometres inside Pakistan. Our forces thwarted this attack and managed to throw out the aggressors. Our air force did a wonderful job. That was one of the few occasions when the nation stood united as a rock. People still remember the heroes of that time – those who gave their lives and those who survived.
I had gone to Berlin in 1961 and moved to Holland after two years to study at the Technological University of Delft so we could be near my (at that time) fiancé’s parents who lived in Holland. Before leaving Pakistan I had witnessed Ayub Khan’s martial law. People had welcomed it and the public loved and respected the army jawans.
At that time housing societies and other lucrative business adventures were unheard of. Ayub Khan did an excellent job in encouraging and helping industries, building dams, the law and order situation, etc. In short, when I left Pakistan in 1961 it was a beautiful, peaceful country and we were respected all over the world. Our green passports had value and we could travel widely without visas.
In Holland I had wider access to international and Pakistani news than in Germany. We lived in a suburb of The Hague and the Pakistan embassy was within easy reach, where I could read papers from home and remain updated. Moreover, foreign language newspapers were easily available, including the Daily Telegraph.
News about a looming war with India started appearing in the papers. Border skirmishes led to a full-scale war in Kashmir when Gen Akhtar Malik broke through the Indian defence and was near Akhnur. The Indians, desperate to save their only connection with Kashmir and their army there, launched a full-scale attack on Lahore.
At that time, a respected Dutch political analyst, Prof Dr de Jong, discussed the matter on TV and was pro-India. I sent him a letter describing the background of the Kashmir issue, the plot by Nehru, Mountbattan and Maharaja Kashmir to annex Kashmir illegally and the placing of the Indian army there to suppress the freedom movement. Unfortunately, Shaikh Abdullah, known as the ‘Tiger of Kashmir’ and the ‘Kashmiri Gandhi’, was a staunch supporter of the Congress and had great influence over the Kashmiris. After receiving my letter and thanking me for it, Prof de Jong became more objective in his programmes on this topic.
Pakistani forces were, at that time, superior to Indian forces and had inflicted very severe damage. Our air force had total control of the air space and supported the ground forces. For some unknown reason, Ayub Khan replaced Gen Akhtar Malik with Gen Yahya Khan and the advances made were stalled. Our civil and military officials had been quite oblivious to the possible danger of an Indian attack on Lahore.
Thanks to the exemplary courage of army jawans and officers, we managed to hold on and India could not break through. Those heroes who gave their lives for Pakistan in 1965 are still remembered with love and respect.
Let us remember that a nation that does not learn from history and doesn’t value their intelligentsia is doomed and those Muslims who ignore or disobey Allah’s edicts face disgrace and humiliation. One should never doubt these historically proven principles.
US and British documents regarding the 1965 war are eye-openers. It appears that Ayub Khan was at breaking point and literally begging those two countries to enforce a ceasefire. A very informative book on this topic has been written by one of the best generals of the Pakistan Army, Gen Mahmood Ahmad, former Corps Commander of Rawalpindi and DG ISI. It is titled ‘The Illusion of Victory’ and gives a real picture of that war.
Every country, every nation gets a good chance once in a lifetime. We had that chance in 1962 when we were militarily very strong due to our partnership in Cento and Seato (originally formed against the Soviet Union). The Chinese army had demolished the Indian army in Assam. Had we grabbed that opportunity to go into Kashmir, the issue would have been over within a week, once and for all.
We missed our chance while the Indians grabbed theirs in 1971 and inflicted a grave defeat on us. We celebrate the 1965 war with great pomp and show, totally ignoring what happened just six years later. But we must not forget.
In all the celebrations that have just taken place nobody, civilian or military, had the courtesy of saying a word of thanks to the 10,000 odd people of KRL. They were the ones who worked long hours and sacrificed their family lives to give nuclear weapons, missiles and other conventional weapons to the nation thus majorly contributing in making Pakistan’s defence impregnable.
Tailpiece: In my column of August 31 (‘Hazrat Umar and the Roman ambassador’), there was an mistake. Where appropriate, the text should read: “When the Roman ambassador saw Hazrat Umar in such a position (sleeping in the open on a mat under a date tree) he was highly impressed and overawed. He commented: ‘A person whose name sends shivers down the spines of emperors and rulers all over the world, yet he is so simple. Oh Omar, you gave justice to the people and you can sleep peacefully. Our emperor is harsh and hard and that’s why he has sleepless nights. I give witness that your religion is correct and if I were not an emissary I would have embraced Islam. I will come back after this mission and will embrace Islam.’” (Al-Tibr al-Masbuk fi Nasihatil-Muluk by Imam Ghazali, p 18) Unfortunately I was unable to find the name of this emissary in the literature available to me.
Email: dr.a.quadeer.khan@gmail.com