Portrait of Bravery

Portrait of Bravery 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.) Regards Sodhi Singh