Daily Times

Print media is resonant once again with the passionate jihadi lore reminiscent of the 1965 war. As against the single PTV channel in 1965, however, there is now a cluster of channels, each projecting more or less the same jihadi image of a soldier, a mujahid, a holy warrior at the dizzy Siachen heights.
What one sorely misses is the vibrant voice of the late Shakeel Ahmed — the doyen of Radio Pakistan newscasters. The sheer force of his voice made his listeners hope for the best, even when the war had lost its edge after the failure of our tank infantry thrust to Amritsar via Khemkaran. For his avid listeners throughout the country, Ahmed’s vibrant newscasts could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Albeit too real for his listeners, his crusading and jihadi pronouncements bore little relevance to the actual state of the war, getting darker by the day. Ahmed’s euphoric accounts along with Madam Noor Jehan’s stirring war songs promised a clear victory (Fathe Mobin), even when the war was headed for a tame draw.
To set the euphoric Islamic jihadi tone for the war was none but the Supreme Commander and the President of Pakistan, Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan himself. In his first broadcast to the nation, at 12 pm on the fateful day of September 6, 1965, he declared, “The hundred million Pakistanis whose hearts beat with the sound of La Ilhah Illillah (There is no God but God!) will not rest until the Indian guns are silenced forever…”
Thus the Field Marshal converted a national war into an Islamic crusade. For amongst ‘the hundred million Pakistanis’, there were also Hindus and Christians, and a handful of Sikhs too, mainly in the Orakzai Agency, whose ‘hearts’ did not ‘beat with the sound’ of the Kalma-i-Tayyaba.’
That Pakistan had been and remains an overwhelmingly Muslim state goes without saying. However, that alone would not make it an ‘Islamic state’.
This could be said of all the other institutions of the State of Pakistan — more so of its military establishment. It is either 100 percent professional (secular?) or nothing — the overwhelmingly religious/ideological faith and orientation of its men and officers notwithstanding. The term mujahid, an Islamic warrior, can be used for a Pakistani military man and officer only as a poetic expression or a motivational aid, and in no other sense whatsoever without compromising his professional status. Used extravagantly, this would erode the steel framework of military discipline, command, control systems and loyalty in the line of duty. It is hardly a matter of personal choice or preference. The junior must do whatever he is told to do. The only other choice available is either to quit or cause mutiny and suffer its dire consequences.
Military honour consists in obedience all the way up and down. The army chief must bear true obedience to his supreme commander just as a jawan to his JCO (Junior Commissioned Officer) or the one over him. The case of the tribal lashkars (‘raiders’ in the language of Maj-Gen Mohammad Akbar Khan, DSO) must continue to serve as a useful example of mujahids quitting the battlefield of their own free will even in the crucial opening phase of the Kashmir jihad.
As mujahideen-warriors, they claimed their share of war booty (Maal-e-ghanimat) even as they entered Baramula and the outskirts of Srinagar later on.
Since the first Kashmir war (October 1947-April 1949) had been a covert operation from Pakistan’s side, even the regulars involved were called mujahideen. The commander of the Azad Kashmir forces, Brigadier Mohammad Akbar, code-named himself General Tarique, after the famed Arab commander, Tarique Bin Ziyad, the conqueror of Spain.
Thus mujahid became the other word for a Pakistani warrior — regular or an irregular. In both the 1965 and 1971wars, the words jihad and mujahid were bandied about quite freely for our fighting personnel in East and West Pakistan.
It is arguable that since the two words have been a part of our war diaries, what is wrong with their usage in the Siachen rescue operation. Their usage becomes all the more relevant for the tragic circumstance of the deaths of so many soldiers and civilians, buried alive under a mountain of snow. It needs to be remembered however that they were professional soldiers, fatally hit by a sudden avalanche, at their posts, in the line of duty.
Army chief General Ashfaque Pervaiz Kayani during his visit to the Gayari sector of Siachen (April 18) called Siachen a ‘difficult’ front. “The army’s job is to defend the country, whatever and wherever it might be,” he said. He went on to stress the need for resolving the Siachen conflict and for ‘peaceful co-existence with India’. Unique words, indeed, for an army chief to use in support of a peaceful co-existence with India — Pakistan’s archenemy.
While commending his officers and jawans for their exemplary courage, high morale and devotion to duty, General Kayani scrupulously avoided the use of such words as jihad and mujahideen being liberally used by the media.
The heroes of the Pakistan army, as professional soldiers and patriots unswervingly dedicated to national defence and security, are not to be compared to the mujahid militants and suicide bombers out to destroy the peace of the land in the name of Islam.
Pakistani deployment across Siachen is wholly for the defence of Pakistan rather than for Islam. A Pakistani soldier can be called a mujahid only as part of a motivational aid.
He is a hard-boiled, dedicated, professional soldier. He sits atop the glacier eyeball-to-eyeball with the enemy, the Indian soldier, also sworn to the defence of his own dharti mata (sacred land).
While visiting the Bhani sector upstream the Wagah border in 1965, I called on Brigadier Qayyuum Sher, commander of 103 Brigade. The brigadier, a fine soldier, expressed utter dissatisfaction with stories of ‘divine intervention’ in the operations appearing in the national press. “How can you even think of a green-robed angel helping to deflect a bomb from a vital target — bridge or a bunker. Should that be so, what on earth is Pakistan Army doing? Remember, the wretched Hindu on the other side is as much a soldier as his Muslim counterpart. For God’s sake, stop your airy-fairy PR bull****…”
Use of the terms jihad and mujahid for our soldiers could come as a boon to fanatical militant groups. Nothing would suit them better.

The writer is a retired brigadier and can be reached at brigsiddiqi@yahoo.co.uk