Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh

Once again the dark clouds of War are looming over the Land of Five rivers. Distress, pain, emotional disability and confusion and loss would follow.

What this disturbing period would bring to the People of the Land of the Gurus - where people survive and strive on the name and for the Bani of the Gurus - after the turbulence of the eighties is beyond the prediction of any known human messiah. The destruction and fear of the '65 and '71 wars was overcome by the desh bhagati of the stubborn Sikh mentality, shouldering shoulder in shoulder the Punjab peasantry marched against the invaders and taught them a lesson which they remembered for a long time. Today the picture appears to be different. Sikhs who never moved in previous wars and vowed to fight the enemy with bare hands are today leaving in their hundreds of thousands and moving back in land to safety. There is no enthusiasm to support the soldiers on Punjab’s borders with Pakistan - no people in their thousands running supplier and drums of milk to the frontline troops. This is a very discerning point, as whatever happens the Punjab will NEVER be safe in the hands of enemies like Pakis. ON THE OTHER HAND HOW COULD WE IN OUR THOUSANDS AND MILLIONS FORGET WHAT WAS DONE TO OUR HARIMANDIR and THE PEOPLE OF THE SIKH PANTH.

But today, seeing the Sikh Commandos leaping off planes in their parachutes on the Zee TV news brought back the some memories of the 1965 war. Sikh soldiers were also shown in their hundreds after the capture of the Tiger Hill post shouting Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

In the 1965 war ,the Sikhs of the Punjab instead of sheltering during enemy air attacks ,would come up to the roof tops of their houses to watch the dogfights between Indian and Pakistani air forces. They would cheer their countrymen in their home made knat fighters taking on and downing the more superior, American built sabers, reputed to the BEST in the world at that time. Two of the most decorated Indian fighter pilots of this period were Flight Lt Nirmaljit Singh Sekhon from the Halwara Airbase in the Punjab; another was Squadron Leader Baljit Singh Gill from the Adampur Fighter Air base.

On land the peasantry would transport by their private trucks and cars, supplies to the soldiers on the front, without being asked to or with support from the authorities. I remember truckfuls of milk, "rotian saag" going to the jawans on the fronts of Wagah, Khemkaran, Ferozepore and Fazilka.

Dozens of Pakistani paratroopers dropped into the Punjabi villages in the course of the night were killed or overpowered beaten up by many a Punjabi villagers. One Sikh villager killed a Pakistani trooper with his bucket that he was carrying to go and milk the cows, early in the morning. Another used a hoe to cause damage to another Paki soldiers skull then dragged him by the hoe to the village and sat on him till the army guys arrived.

This is one of those stories from that war. In the Wagah sector, across the border the Pakistanis had constructed a canal - Ichogill, their aim was to stop any possible Indian tank advance. However, in the heat of the war ,a 1st Light Maharattha Infantry battalion was deployed to break across this canal, failed with very heavy casualities, in fact it withdrew allowing a Pakistani advance over the canal towards the Indian soil.

By the next day, an Indian Gurkha battalion was brought to replace the 1st LMI. For five days these brave soldiers fought the enemy pushing them, then getting pushed back again. Basically it was a no win situation .The enemy was well entrenched with heavy artillery and tank deployment just across the canal ,and in a safe place. After five days, the Gurkhas too were suffering heavy casualties. The Pakis were well poised to now to bring their tanks across the Ichogill canal in their attempt to ram into the heartland of the Punjab effectively cutting Northern India into two.

The Indian Western Command under Lt. General Harbaksh Singh ,then decided to replace them with the 8 Sikhs of the 2 Punjab Infantry under Col Waryam Singh Gill. The Sikh battalion moved forward from the outskirts of Amritsar, taking over their positions in the late afternoon heat.

Col Waryam Singh decided to launch an attack with this fresh troops ,right there in the dead of the night. It was reported that the battalion did Ardas together with their colonel and after that launched ferociously across at the enemy. Fierce fighting ,including hand to hand combat broke out. The Sikhs moved forward with such force and speed that the 1st line of enemy defenses collapsed. The Sikh troopers then, unrelentingly launched their advance across the canal with rubber dinghies and boats. In the first wave about a hundred Sikhs made across the canal.

Across the canal they ran into a Pakistani army camp housing about 4000 men. Apparently in the dead pitched darkness of the night it was not possible to see who was who ......THE SIKHS WERE CONTINUALLY INCREASING IN NUMBERS AND THE SIKH WAR CRY BOLE SO NIHAL SAT SRI AKAL WAS DEAFENING IN THE THRONG OF THE WEAPON FIRE - The Pakistanis were so shocked by this sudden appearances of Sikhs, THE PAKIS INTIMIDATED TO HELL ,THAT MANY OF THEM , to escape death or being shot at decided to shout the war cry - BOLE SO NIHAL SAT SRI AKAL, and FLED IN THE DARK OF THE NIGHT WESTWARDS - TOWARDS LAHORE AND Kasur in their blind dash to escape the Sikh soldiers. Thus many of them escaped death and fled. By early morning the Ichogill canal was in Indian hands and Sikhs were flying their Nishan Sahib in an old Gurdwara abandoned during 1947 partition on the outskirts of Kasur town.

Further south on the Khem Karan front near Fazilka, the 2nd Pakistan armored corps had gathered in large numbers with upto 700 tanks - their intention was to drive an attack heading straight across the flat sandy country side of southern Punjab to Bathinda and threatening Rajastan and Delhi.

Facing this hostile enemy force was Indian armored and light armored tank corps from the Punjab, with about 200 tanks under Corps General Rajinder Singh; later after the battle became famously known as General Rajinder Singh "Sparrow" As the enemy moved across the dusty plains ...Rajinder Singh engaged them head on - with many of his men jumping out of their tanks with tank dynamites and explosives and attacking the enemy tanks ,blowing them to smithereens, not fearing for their own lives. Three Sikh soldiers from this battle were decorated with Maha Vir Chakras. In Indian military history this battle is reputed to be known as "hands versus tanks" - hands WON

Each time the Pakistanis thought they broke through, they were pushed back with heavy casualties. This went on for one whole day. Towards the end the enemy retreated, in panic, literally fled. A count showed five hundred enemy tanks lost and damaged opposed to 120 Indian tanks. This battle was even bigger than the one at El-Alamein - where German General Rommel of the AFRIKA CORPS damaged 400 hundred British tanks.

The smaller Indian tanks with superb operational skills were far superior for the Paki tanks from USA - General Rajinder Singh became known as "Sparrow" and was decorated.

It was further South in Rajastan a Sikh battalion held on to a post - despite superior onslaughts from the enemy - the film BORDER was based on this battalion of Sikhs.

But today the story seems to be different, but I am sad that the real casualties, again are going to be the Sikhs.

Those who have referred to the dying Sikhs as dogs, may be the product of and share similarities to a dog and a pig themselves: certainly NOT LIONS - LIKE THIS BRAVE SONS OF A MOTHER WHO ARE ONLY DEFENDING THE BORDERS OF THE LAND TO FEED THEIR FAMILIES - a death of ANY innocent Sikh youth is sad - the real criminals in this are the so called leaders like Tohra, Parkash, Amarinder Singh, opportunists like Prof. Manjit Singh ,countless self appointed "chellas" of the KURSI and carbons of authentic copies who like their predecessors have NOT done their home work again ,instead fed the Sikh soldier to gun like fodder - in order to save their KURSIS>

ASK ANY MOTHER whose sons are killed - THEY ARE LIONS - not cats like those who sit behind computers and churn out their droppings to feed equally ignorant sub-chellas.