A team of about 160 Indian war veterans under the banner of India-Pakistan Soldiers’ Initiative for Peace (IPSI) has been invited by their Pakistani counterparts for a peace meeting in Pakistan on November 18.
A majority of these war veterans fought the 1965, 1971 and the Kargil war in 1999 but soon after retirement joined IPSI, which was launched by the late Gandhian Nirmala Deshpande in 1993. War veterans from Pakistan have made similar visits to India earlier and it is the second time the Indian team will be going across.
The core objective of the meet will be to find alternatives to resolve the Kashmir conflict. The massive after effects of war on the economy and the pathetic condition of communities living in war zones prompted most of these soldiers to take up the peace initiative. “When we are in uniform, our priority is to combat the enemy. But after retirement, we see the impact of battles on people and the economy. While war is a very important tool of state policy, we felt that it can be avoided,” said secretary general of IPSI and retired Brigadier J L Kaul.
He explained that the role ex-soldiers will play in the peace process will be very different from diplomats or politicians. “We will not mince words like diplomats. Soldiers share a very unique relationship, which is not affected by the fact that we are fighting each other,” said retired colonel and Vishisht Seva Medal awardee Abdul Rasul Khan.
He recollected an incident after a three-day bloody battle at Asal Uttar in 1965. “The next morning after the war, a soldier from the other side suddenly addressed one of our Indian soldiers in chaste Haryanvi. He said that he knew the soldier was from Haryana when he heard his accent from a distance. Our soldier responded to him and called out ‘tau’ (so?). It was very funny to hear such a conversation after the bitterest of battles. That’s the kind of bonhomie soldiers share”.
The Pakistan war veterans are preparing to receive the Indian delegation. “We are very excited about the meet. It is long overdue. Despite fighting each other eye ball to eye ball, we are glad that now we have a chance to talk about peace. We are done with the fighting,” retired General Humayun Bangash told Times of India over the phone from Pakistan. The Indian delegation will be received at the Wagah border on November 18. They are likely to visit Lahore, Islamabad and Abbottabad.
That is why I always say that faujis logical ages/intelligence approaches usually start when they get retirement packages or at that time when they have no worth just like used cartridge which can be considered as historical piece , nothing more than it.
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