Pakistani General's Admiration of the Sikh Soldiers
Posted by Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia
Pakistani General's Admiration of the Sikh Soldiers
Posted by Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia on Sunday, 1/18/1998 4:48 PM MST
| Excellence of Sikhism, Sarup S. Alag ******************************************************************************** Maj. General M. Khan of Pakistan wrote in his book 'Crisis of Leadership' about the bravery of the Sikh soldiers during the Indo-Pak war. Here are some excerpts: "....the main reason of our defeat was Sikhs fighting facing us. We were helpless to do anything in front of them. Sikhs are very brave and they have a great craving for martyrdom. They fight so fiercely that they are capable of defeating an army many times bigger than theirs." "....On 3rd December 1971, we fiercely and vigorously attacked the Indian army with our infantry brigade near Hussainiwala border. This brigade included Pakistan army's fighter Punjabi regiment together with the Baloch regiment. Within minutes we pushed the Indian army quite far back. Their defence posts fell under our control. The Indian army was retreating back very fast and the Pakistani army was going forward with a great speed. Our army reached near the Kausre-Hind post. There was a small segment of the Indian army appointed to defend that post and their soldiers belonged to the Sikh Regiment. A few number of the Sikh Regiment stopped our way forward like an iron wall. They loudly greeted us with the ovation of 'Bole-so-Nihal' and attacked us like blood thirsty hungry lions and hawks. All these soldiers were Sikhs. There was even a dreadful hand-to-hand battle. The sky filled with roars of 'Yaa Ali' and 'Sat-Siri-Akal'. Even in this hand-to-hand fighting the Sikhs fought so bravely that all our desires, aspirations and dreams were shattered." ".....In this war Lt. Col Gulab Hussain of Baloch Regiment got killed. With him Major Mohammed Zaeef and Captain Arif Alim also died. It was difficult to count the number of soldiers who got killed. We were astonished to see the courage of those handful of Sikh soldiers. When we seized the possession of the three-storey defence post of concrete, the Sikh soldiers went onto the roof and kept on persistently opposing us. The whole night they kept on showering fires on us and continued shouting the loud ovation of 'Sat-Siri-Akal'. These Sikh soldiers kept on the encounter till the next day. Next day the Pakistani tanks surrounded this post and bombed it with guns. Those handful of Sikhs got martyred in this encounter while resisting us, but other Sikh soldiers then destroyed our tanks with the help of their artillery. Fighting with great bravery they kept on marching forward and thus our army lost its foothold." "....Alas, a handful of Sikhs converted our great victory into a big defeat and shattered our confidence and courage. ." "....The same thing happened with us in Dhaka(Bangladesh). In the battle of Jaissur, the Singhs opposed the Pakistani army so fiercely that our backbone and our foothold was lost. This became the main and important reason of our defeat and the Sikhs' fancy for martyrdom and mockery with death for the sake of safety and honour of the country, became the sole cause of their victory." Similar type of comments were made by Pakistani army in East Pakistan under the leadership of General Niazi while surrendering their weapons to General Jagjit Singh Arora. The bravery and spirit of sacrifice of Sikhs were respected and honoured by one and all. ************************************** May God rest the souls of all the fallen soldiers (Sikhs and Pakistanis), in peace. Thought: "Sawa Lakh se ek laraun, chirian to(n) main baaj taranun, tabhe Gobind Singh naam kahaun" (Unless I raise one to stand against many, cause sparrow spurn hawk, I shall not deserve to be called Gobind Singh.) |
 | Pakistani General's Admir... (Preet Mohan S Ahluwalia - 18.Jan.98) |
