With every single soul that departs from us, many hopes are lost; dreams of many wives, sisters, mothers and fathers are shattered. It is never merely a soul that departs, but it leaves behind lots of memories and messages for us. Wise nations never forget their heroes; but before this, we have to define who our heroes are? Those who are attacking the poor polio workers, people in the mosques and religious processions and shrines, and those who are supporting the killers? Or those who are trying to protect us day and night, away from or unaware of the discussions whether to negotiate with the killers of 50,000 innocent people or not, whether to handover a part of Pakistan away like 1971 or not, whether to release their fellow killers from jails or not?
Here, I am talking about the valiant soldiers of our military and police. Every martyr has a story of valor, related not only to him but to his family as well. We all have seen on TV how after the attack on a police bus in Karachi, injured soldiers were courageously calling out Taliban miscreants, declaring that they were ready to fight and that they would not let them take over our country; even the parents of the martyrs were giving interviews with much courage; and we all know what it takes to raise a kid! When it is born, we hold it in a blanket or cloth and it cannot open its eyes completely. And yet, there are those parents who see the dead bodies of their kids, shattered with splinters or bullets, in a coffin with their eyes closed; but they are proud of them and gain more courage due to their sacrifice for their homeland. I do not think there is any other time in one’s lifetime that is more difficult.
A couple of days ago, I had a discussion with the family of Major Jahanzeb Adnan of 3 FF REGT, who embraced Shahadat last week during an ambush with TTP miscreants. He was on a reconnaissance mission in the Matni area, just outside Peshawar. it was a routine surveillance to search for possible terrorists. He was on the track of a group of militants who were in Peshawar; they caught the whiff of his presence and went on to escape outside the city where Major Jahanzeb Shaheed caught up
on them and there was an exchange of gunfire, Three terrorists were killed by Maj. Jahanzeb Shaheed, and later, he got martyred. He was from the frontier force regiment. His father is Lt Col (retd) Malik Noor Muhammad. Their hometown is Multan. He left a widow and three kids behind, and his elder daughter is 7 years old. He was the third one among his siblings. I always thought that on television, the parents and wives control their emotions, but it is a reality that Shahadat gives them more courage! His wife was very courageous and was telling everything very hopefully, that she would raise the three kids like their father wanted; and she is just 26 years old! During the time of the Shahadat of Major Jahanzeb, she was just 32 years old.
So now is the time to decide the fate of our State and know who is destroying and who is helping us, who is fighting hundreds of miles away, day and night, leaving his kids and family behind without any political affiliation or anything. He does not know whether we are negotiating or not. We should stand by our forces and their sacrifices. The Police, the Army, the FC and the Air Force are all on red alert these days, and our enemy has showed his face openly, so we should not repeat the same mistakes again. Yes, we created these terrorists due to our wrong policies, but our soldiers and our nation were dying then and they are dying now, and I think that together we can eliminate this militancy, not only from Waziristan but from Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan as well. Banned outfits like Sipah-e-Sahaba and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi are operating openly in Punjab, Sindh and Baluchistan. Madrassahs are still spreading hate across the country, and again, we are operating against specific groups and not terrorism. How many more lives will be sacrificed to make the leaders and policy makers understand that we need to eliminate terrorism and militancy completely from this land of the pure – Pakistan.
