While I was writing this article, news came that the air force of my country has retaliated against the violation of my country’s airspace by IAF a day prior. Media outlets across Pakistan reported that PAF has shot down two Indian jets, and one pilot has been taken captive by Pakistan’s armed forces.
Coincidentally, I had just attended a workshop on ‘war journalism’ being conducted in an educational institute of Lahore. My initial reaction was to laud my country’s air force over their befitting reply, a natural one no matter whether I’m a liberal or which religion or creed I belong to.
To me, the role played by my country’s armed forces in defending my family and I while we were asleep will always remain a sacred one, and this is similar to my Indian brothers revering their armed force.
Armed forces are the ones who stand guard, be it India or Pakistan, when civilians sleep a peaceful sleep in their beds. This is not to say that I’m in any way romanticising war or confrontation between my country and India. I’m someone who will always be opposed to the menacing notion of war no matter what.
War for me is the worst three letter word in our lexicon, it is perhaps the word I loathe most. Wars and conflicts, be it both the World Wars in the past, or even Indo-Pak wars of past times, have yielded nothing but the huge lesson that in a war, only humanity suffers, not those who plunge their countries into conflict in the first place out of their own personal knave ambitions.
As a peace-loving global citizen, I want to convey this message to the beloved army and government of my country, to treat the Indian pilot who has been taken captive with respect and dignity he deserves as a human being in the first place, no matter whether he belongs to a supposed enemy state or not. I hope my country’s authorities won’t violate the rules and regulations set out by Geneva Convention for POWs.
A video released by Pakistani armed forces hours after the Indian pilot was captured shows the calm mannered soldier being offered a cup of chai. Through his body language and tone in the video, it can inferred that nothing atrocious or torturous has been done to him. This reflects the desire for peace, as how you treat your supposed enemy shows your actual maturity.
I would request Modi ji and the Indian leadership that they reciprocate the peaceful gesture advocated by my PM Imran Khan in his speech after the clash between our fighter jets. He has forwarded a confident hand of love and peace to India, for diffusing the recent escalation of tensions post Pulwama terror attack.
How great would it be if the two premiers had chai together? Being a Gujarati, a delicious Gujarati luncheon would be great too!
I hope PM Imran won’t decline Modi ji’s daawat of Gujarati kadhi and dhokla, but most importantly love.
Love is what is needed to bring peace between the two countries at the moment and to get rid of any kind of unnecessary and disastrous chest-thumping.
While I hope the captured pilot is treated well and returned unharmed to his country, we must remember that war is never a solution and there is no use of resorting to jingoism. For the sake of God, Allah and Bhagwan, let us please give peace a chance.
(The author is a Pakistani blogger and student. He tweets at @sarmadiqbal7.)
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