A visit to LOC – A Seminal Event Part-I

PREAMBLE

In every person’s life, there are some events that become seminal or life-changing. Recently I was fortunate enough to experience one of them.

I got a chance to go to Jammu and Kashmir to the Line of Control (LoC).

Now, before I talk about it, let me tell you about why I consider it to be a seminal event.

From the time I was a young boy, I wanted to join Armed Forces, I could not try joining it because like many other parents, my parents did not want to risk their son’s life. Although who knows – maybe I would not have been selected. It’s not easy.

I fulfilled my dream vicariously, I used to get all the books I could find on war, in the library issued, and used to read them, The books took me to Alexander the Great, battles fought by the Mughals, the British, World War 1, World War 2, Korean and Vietnam Wars, India’s wars of ‘48, ‘62, ‘67, ‘71, ‘84, ‘99 and so on (BTW, in case you are confused about ‘67 and ‘84, I am referring to Nathu La and the occupation of Siachen wherein we hammered the Chinese and Pakistan armies respectively).

As everyone should, I respect what the armed forces do for their countries.

With a view to sharing my experience of going to the LoC, I have written this series of articles.

During this visit, I walked around, I spoke to a man on the street, I met with youngsters, businessmen, soldiers, army leaders and everyone who I thought I would like to hear from you.

It was an eye-opener.

As I said before, I met many average citizens, professionals, soldiers and officers and I asked them the same question – what do YOU think is the solution to the Kashmir problem?

Here are my reasons for asking this question:

• In my professional career, I have realized that if you ask people anything formally, they will either give you a politically safe answer or will not tell you anything substantive. On the other hand, they are more open when they know that you are asking a genuine question, in a trustworthy manner for a genuine purpose.

Secondly, and this is very important:

• The solution to a majority of the issues and problems are available within. Someone somewhere knows how to solve the problem. One just needs to give them a patient hearing and understand what they are saying. To be honest, people used to think I am a very intelligent consultant, actually I simply used to spend a tremendous amount of time talking to my client’s employees to discuss the problem and its potential solution. More often than not, I found the solution within – no need for big and expensive surveys, data collection, analysis etc.
• I wanted to find the solution of the J&K problem within J&K and its people. I think I found one, which I will come to in the last part of this article.

I went, I saw and my heart got conquered

Stray dogs (all dogs for that matter) have a habit if they are walking and they come across a smell, sound or anything that is different from what they are used to they go still and start barking.

This dog was barking continuously, the sentry of the post, not realizing that the dog is barking for a reason, was throwing stones at him to quieten him. He finally lost his patience and took the dog inside the hut. Little knowing that this action would result in him losing his life.

The last obstacle gone, the Indian assault force attacked the Pakistani post and overran it within 30 minutes.

Mission Accomplished.

Now, for those of you who felt that why Indian forces did this – well, Pakistanis were using that post and route to send terrorists into India. In the last 50 days, 10 of them had tried to cross over. Our valiant and vigilant army men had got them all but then they decided to eliminate the root cause – after all, for how long can we just be “decent” men?

And they did, like true patriotic Indians….and good soldiers.

Shocked? Confused?

Be so, because that’s the reality on the ground in J&K, that’s the life of an army man there. Putting their life on the line every day, hour and minute. Living away from their families, loved ones, and friends. Some of their children are infants, some are in school, and some are in college.

Now think how many times you’ve felt that my child needs guidance, a father’s support and presence. I guess almost daily.

Now

Think, these guys are sitting in a war zone (let’s not get diplomatic or pseudo here, it “IS” a war zone), knowing that their kid needs their father but can’t have him.

Shocked, Confused and a tad bit sad?

Well, you should be. That is the least you can do for our men in the military.

For obvious reasons, I am not going to talk about where I was and who all I met. But, let me tell you what I saw. During the visit, we went to a few frontlines where active/passive engagements happen off and on.

As Day One dawned, our train pulled into the Jammu station. As soon as we got out, there were two big sturdy Army personnel waiting to pick us up. The salute they gave us was something to remember, we didn’t know how to respond except for responding with a Jai Hind.

For the first time in my life, a Jai Hind “felt” like Jai Hind.

After reaching the place where we were staying, what struck me was that amidst all the military and security presence, there was serenity in the Army station. It was the HQ of the unit we were visiting.

On the way, we were passing through a village and an old man who was riding his bike to work got off the cycle and gave a crisp salute. Surprised, I asked my escort who he was. I was told that he was a retired soldier. Such is the discipline and training of our army that even after retiring the pride in being an ex-army person does not go away.

After getting fresh and having breakfast, we started our journey towards the LoC.

After an hour-long drive on roads which were narrow, sharp drops alongside the roads (with no protection if the vehicle went off the road) having non-stop very sharp turns (we needed anti-motion sickness medicine to keep us going, this is when, I have done many holidays up on the hills never needing any medicine). I developed a new respect for army drivers and their control over their vehicles!!

We finally reached the LoC.

We were received by soldiers with a salute, and I responded with a loud Jai Hind (by now I had started to learn…J), the first thing they give you is Lukewarm water to drink; in that cold it felt heavenly.

After a warm cup of tea, we were off and moving. After walking a bit, we came to an Observation Post near what is called the AIOS (Anti Intruder Obstruction System).

Observation Post is basically a two-level hut kind of a structure. It is manned by 3 soldiers, one on top is the sentry with gun watching for intruders, one resting at the bottom level and one doing housekeeping. The duties rotate every 6 hours.

I was told that once they are posted here, they live like this for 2-3 months.

Imagine a lonely post, in the middle of a jungle, on top of a hill, completely isolated, very cold, devoid of all other life forms, with risk of a terrorist being around trying to sneak into India, fully armed, trained and ready to kill.

Your life is 6 hours of alert sentry duty, then 6 hours of sleep/rest, then six hours for cooking/cleaning/housekeeping…..nothing else…it goes on and on like this ….

And you live like this for 2-3 months non-stop.

Try doing this in the comforts of your home, always concerned that there could be someone lurking outside trained and fitted to kill you if the situation demands – if you can last out a week; please pat yourself on the back.

I can’t do it……respect to the Indian Army men.

I was told that a few months back, the Pakistani army had hit this area with missiles and mortars, but the soldiers fought bravely and pushed them back.

Near the post there is a small temple where the soldiers pray once in a while for the wellbeing of their loved ones, and also before going into an ambush/fight.

By this time, walking up and down on the narrow strips of land on the mountain, I was tired, thirsty and hungry. We had great food waiting for us in the small makeshift army mess. It was announced in typical army way – one of the cooks came to our sitting area, saluted and announced, “Sahab, bhojan prastut hai!”. During lunch, the local commander and his team regaled us with the local stories of various happenings. We also spoke about what the Army is doing, what problems they face and what needs to be done to defeat the menace of terror.

We were shown Pakistani posts across the border, we saw them watching us, we saw how our units watch them (using high-resolution cameras, telescopes and forward observation posts), in addition to seeing the various interesting mapping techniques being used.

You know, it is amazing how your adrenalin level shoots up when you know that you are being watched (and maybe you are in the crosshairs of someone’s gun sight).

We came to know about an Indian sniper, who, using a sniper rifle with an effective sniping range of only 600-700 yards shot and killed a terrorist at a distance of 1,000 yards in a single shot (imagine if he had a modern sniper rifles with a kilometer’s range).

On the second day, we had lunch at a place where a few months back Pakistani’s had fired missiles. Kudos to the Army that within a month they had rebuilt the place and made it functional again.

When on the ground, one realizes how in real life small things can be used as effective deterrents against the enemy, for instance, you recall the example I had given of the stray dog near the Pakistani post….well the Indian army has come up with a unique way of surveillance; they have trained stray dogs to roam around in the potential Terrorist ingress areas.

Army personnel keep an eye on them and wherever they see any odd behaviour of the street dog, they know that there is some intruder there….a simple, innovative and effective technique to prevent unwanted persons to enter our country.

Now, wherever we moved, in the war zone, there was a military vehicle moving in the front and one behind us. I was curious to know why? It turns out that the purpose of the vehicle in the front is to ensure that there are no mines embedded in the road and the one at the back is supposed to be a rear end protection.

Everything has a logic here, things that look simple like stray dogs, vehicle movement pattern… everything is designed to protect human lives.

During the trip we met a young, strapping six-foot tall military doctor. Since he manages the medical help of the entire area, he is called upon to help at many odd hours.

A few days back, there were some casualties in a base post which is just 200 meters from the Pakistani post. He had to walk down a sharp steep hill, at a gradient of almost 70 degree for 1 km at 3 am in the middle of the night in pitch dark to give first aid and then bring the soldier back up the hill before putting them in a chopper for detailed treatment. One soldier died and one they could save.

Such are our brave soldiers who guard our borders day and night.

The living conditions of our Army men are tough; it is cold, rainy, wet, and quite inhuman.

The fact that even with these conditions they are able to maintain a cheerful, optimistic and can-do attitude is a testament to their mental toughness, training and leadership.

I found all of them to be friendly, hospitable and warm-hearted; When I spoke to them about their wives, children or parents I could see that soft look coming in their eyes – a sense of longing, a sense

of sadness that comes when someone misses their loved ones.

They are tough, they are strong, they are up for a fight anytime day or night, they are solid men but then as we all know even the best of men are also humans and like humans, they miss their families and it pains them when a bullet hits them.

Therefore, whenever you hear negative about the army in J&K, please ignore it.

I met them in battle conditions, they are tough, fit, ready for a good fight but very good to talk to and even if one agrees that there have been some acts of transgression, omission and commissions please remember they are constantly in fear of their life.

If they do slip up once in a while, it’s because they are humans.

Try living like them for a month or a week – you will know yourself.