Pathankot is very unfortunate incident and loss of life of jawans is regrettable. However seeing celebration of Modi haters, terming it a new low in Indian politics would not be exaggeration. It seems that opposition is overjoyed with this incident and they want to capitalize on this issue politically. There may be ideological and political differences in democracy but national security should prevail over all such differences.
Some people are terming it a complete failure of intelligence, foreign policy, and some have gone to extent of doubting capacity of Indian armed forces in handling terrorists. For example one leading news daily published an editorial saying that it is taking too long for armed forces to tackle POORLY TRAINED terrorists. Such irresponsible comments not only demoralize the forces but also exposes your complete failure to understand the issue.
Pathankot has many positives to embrace and many lapses to rectify. I will put down my observations in following paragraphs.
Firstly it was one rare instance when our Intel input was bang on and also army and NSG was not mobilised accordingly. This preparedness has definitely minimised the loss. However obsessive haters don't see this positives. Compared to Mumbai attacks 2008 a lot of improvement is observed. In 2008 we were completely caught on backfoot. It took hours to mobilise NSG.
Secondly our jawans successfully protected strategic assets. Probably it could have been the reason for delay in elimination of terrorists. Armed forces avoided unnecessary risk to life and resources.
Thirdly loss of life has been minimised. Every loss of jawan is painful. But tactical expertise of armed forces minimised loss of life of jawans in direct combat. First 4 lives were lost in assault by terrorists and one jawan died while diffusing bomb. If it was not tactical expertise, loss might have been more. We should credit our forces for it rather than demoralizing.
Further no civilians were harmed. In airbase there are families of air force personnel, schools etc. Our armed forces ensured safety of civilians residing inside airbase.
Next positive aspect is candid confession by defence minister about lapses. It shows gvt's insight and willingness to improve upon. Let's hope that gvt acts on this front and it is not repeated.
Pakistan has agreed to cooperate to fix the masterminds in contrast to previous instances where it took years to convince pak about role of pak based organizations.
Lapses are in policing and patrolling. Firstly BSF shd wake up and look into causes of frequent cross border infiltration. Border management is one thing that needs urgent attention.
Further Punjab police shd accept its laxity. VIP culture of red/blue beacon car is also responsible for it. Had these cars not been exempted, terrorists would not have sailed freely inside Punjab. Also it is reported that Punjab police did not give appropriate weight-age to kidnapped SP's information.
Poor media management has been another issue. Many news channels kept on running live commentary with visuals of sensitive areas and critical tactical decisions. It was complete abuse of freedom. Also by questioning capability of forces it tried to demoralize.
Further relating it with Modij's pak visit is moronic interpretation. No such training in guerilla warfare, arrangement of arms and ammunition, precise planning is not possible to be done in 6-7 days. Therefore saying that these attacks are retaliation by not peace loving factions in response to PM's Lahore visit is idiotic.
In this time of crisis let's support Indian Armed forces and the trust them. They have protected our territory in last 68 years and they are capable of doing so in future. Sitting in AC chambers and sipping alcohol doesn't make one strategic expert. Let the armed forces do their work. They are in better position to analyse and the act.
Lastly on the issue of India pak talks, talks can't be suspended forever. It is the best time to talk to Pak. But we should talk terror first. Its only when terrorism and terrorists are fixed then territory, trade and other issues arise. Yeah by territory I mean PoK not J&K.
No comments:
Post a Comment