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'The only way to deal with terrorism is to crush it hard'
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Thu, 27 May 1999 14:37:25 +0530 This is the first time that I have visited Rediff on the NeT. I was actually looking for the latest updates on the Kargil situation yesterday, and could not get satisfactory information anywhere. I even tried BBC, CNN and Star News sites. TOI had only a small write-up. Then a friend of mine told me on the phone to visit your site, and I was amazed with the amount of information you have been able to put up on the mounting tension in Kargil. Since yesterday afternoon, I have been regularly visiting your site to get an update on this topic, but owing to paucity of free time for browsing, I have not been able to visit the other portions of your site. I will definitely go through your entire site shortly (probably over the weekend), and I hope I will be as satisfied as I have been with your reportage on Kargil. Keep up the good work!
Aniruddha Roy
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Wed, 26 May 1999 10:59:52 -0700 It is indeed good to know more about the Kashmir problem. Most of us know that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and that Pakistan has staked a claim to it. As people we should know more about our integral states, so that we can identify with their problems, and hence reciprocate our feelings of brotherhood to these states that lie in the dangerous infiltration zone. That way, we get closer to them and foreigners will find it difficult to prove that they are isolated from the rest of the country and administration. The more we know, the more we question, the more we can pressure the governmental machine to look beyond party politics to country building. More such articles are invited. Even the status of Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur. Such reports will also keep the human rights commission of India alert to any abuses or violations and help India to steer clear of such incidences, thus improving its stature and validity of the righteousness of its actions in the world body and its decision-making. Bashobi Roy
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Wed, 26 May 1999 19:47:36 -0400 I have read many articles on the air strikes, and was wondering if you are sure that the MiG-29 is being used. I have read elsewhere that the MiG-23 was used in the long-overdue attacks. Your articles are excellent, considering the short time-span involved. I will be sure to recommend Rediff to my colleagues. Please keep up the excellent work.
Sandeep Kaul
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Thu, 27 May 1999 10:12:25 +0530 At a technical and professional level, the site and the presentation is excellent. Allowing relevant hyper links, audio, etc. Keep it up!
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Thu, 27 May 1999 13:54:34 +0530 For over four decades we have faced problems, on both sides. Now is the time to take action, though relatively easy to say, come what may, I feel that the time has come to annihilate our enemies who ever they may be. We have to show the world which is being led by the US and allies that we are committed to safeguarding our national interests at any cost. Given a call I'll surely join the armed forces without thinking further.
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Thu, 27 May 1999 17:37:02 +0530 So who was comparing Advani to Sardar Patel? And how many times did we hear that this was the only 'patriotic' government that would fix Pakistan forever -- after all, didn't it give us the bomb? It is no coincidence that the only party to have no one, repeat no one from the anti-British freedom movement in its top (or middle or lower) echelons is such a disaster as far as foreign policy and national security is concerned. Talking to Strobe Talbot whenever he wants, agreeing to CTBT, taking a bus to Pakistan, making jingoistic statements -- none of these is an alternative to stiffening up the backbone, identifying who is behind Pakistani infiltration (who trained Bin Laden in the first place?? etc.) and rousing the people behind a nationalist agenda. Jingoism, communal obfuscation, personal attacks on leaders of 'foreign origin' don't help. I mean you don't even have the nerve to protest against the bombing of our embassy in Yugoslavia Subhashini Ali
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Thu, 27 May 1999 17:39:20 +0530 Read about our planes being shot down. We want war! Don't let them get away with this. We are game and can volunteer for our nation.
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Thu, 27 May 1999 09:29:52 -0400 It is outrageous that Indian Air Force planes conducting operations to evict the Pakistan-supported infiltrators are shot down. India should not hesitate to take retaliating action if Pakistani helicopters try to provide material support to the militants, or whatever remains of them by now. The Indian government should not hesitate to continue the air and ground strikes until the positions are captured back. Pakistani misadventure should be punished well.
Mukund Kute and family
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Thu, 27 May 1999 10:02:15 -0400 Shame on India. India always claims that it has very good ground troops and hi-tech fighter planes. It is shameful to lose two MiG-27s. It shows the lack of planning and carelessness. At least it has to learn from its mistakes and react accordingly. It has to take care of its soldiers. The USA (NATO!) has taken on the Kosovo mission without losing not even one soldier. But it is unfortunate that India is losing soldiers just to flush out militants. At least now India has to realise that our military skills are nothing. We should have weapons like the Apache. It should destroy our enemies within less time, so that they never turn back.
Shiva Madhu
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Thu, 27 May 1999 07:35:48 -0700 India should not be deterred by this. In fact, it should launch an all-out offensive to repel and destroy the enemy. The fact that the aircraft were flying inside Indian territory and that it was shot down by the Pakistanis, bolsters the need for India to stop negotiating with Pakistan. It is our territory and we should get it back at any cost. My support goes to the Indian armed forces. I wish them continued success.
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Thu, 27 May 1999 21:10:44 +0530 Major General Nugyal's piece about the present government not having the appetite for a retaliatory attack on their bases, even if inside Pak Occupied Kashmir, is a poor comment on his understanding of international relations and also diplomacy. An attack inside that part of Kashmir that we have acknowledged to be under Pak occupation until this dispute is finally settled, would be understood to be a belligerent act in the eyes of the world community. This must be avoided at all costs at least at this initial stage. However hot pursuit is an acceptable tactic to be followed after the initial rounds of fighting are over. Let the international community wake up to the realities of this act of aggression by Pakistan, then we can move in with greater confidence and also justification that is palatable to the world community. This is not like the nuclear programme which had to be done unilaterally. Omaramar
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Thu, 27 May 1999 10:21:06 -0700 Thanks for all the in depth coverage on Rediff. Keep it up! I was wondering why Pakistan seems to get so much more of its version into the Western news media than India. I always find quotes by the Pakistan military spokesmen in Reuters, AP, etc, figuring prominently while the Indian version is barely mentioned. Is this because Pakistani PR is in general better organised? The net result seems to be that there is a very effective PR campaign going on here where India is coming across as the aggressor to the uninformed Western audience. We are witnessing the devastating effects of such a demonisation campaign on the people of Yugoslavia and their leader. It is really not all that far fetched to think that the current Indo-Pak situation could be exploited by the US/NATO global police under the pretext of "humanitarianism". I wish the Indian administration would be more vocal in expressing the constant provocation from across the border and exposing the lies and hypocrisy streaming out of Islamabad. Srividya Sundaresan
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Fri, 28 May 1999 00:03:29 +0530 I believe most Indians shall like to know more about officers and soldiers who are fighting for us at our borders. Nitin
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Thu, 27 May 1999 13:28:27 -0600 This is regarding the incidents in the past couple of days when the IAF attacked the terrorist infiltration in Kargil. I wonder what took us so long to adopt strong measures against all the terrorist operations. Terrorism has become a curse for our country and the only way to deal with it is to crush it and crush it hard...as done in Punjab. The forces are doing the right thing, and it must be continue till every single terrorist is eliminated. But the problem will be when human rights organisations will come into the picture. Organisations like Amnesty International will allege violation of human rights. The way to deal with them is to make them experience the actual scenario, let them face terrorism in reality. I wonder why the United Nation has become ineffective, dancing as directed by the US. The external affairs ministry should gear up to take their cause to the UN and make them realise the reality.
Arijit Mukherjee
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Thu, 27 May 1999 12:47:29 PDT Are you then suggesting that the Indian army is firing on itself? They are a figment of the Indian army's imagination. There are no intruders, no infiltrators. This shows that Mushahid Hussain is talking nonsense. He surely should be made aware that more than 100 Indian soldiers have died fighting for reclaiming the Indian side of Kashmir. Are these soldiers killing themselves or shooting each other. Such people with low common sense should not be interviewed and should not even grace rediff.com.
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Thu, 27 May 1999 20:43:11 -0000 I am impressed by your coverage on one side but terribly sorry for our brave countrymen who are on the battlefield fighting with all the patriotism in their heart. I believe they are the real heroes, otherwise I wouldn't be sitting here writing this mail to you. I have one suggestion for you sir, if our Indian army needs any civilian necessity in carrying out their operations, I would be the happiest man on earth to get enrolled in the army. I request you to provide information to all our country men if at all a situation like that arises. Vijay
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Fri, 28 May 1999 03:43:31 +0200 Actually, until this criminal enterprise aka the state of Pakistan is in existence, there will be no peace, security and stability in South (or Central) Asia even if we give Kashmir away to them. Why? Because this failed state's very foundation is based on its hatred for India. And, unless that ideology changes, nothing -- candlelight vigils, bus yatras, Tashkent summit, the Simla agreement -- will make any difference to the situation. Or, this state goes the former Soviet Union way. Gopi Krishna Maliwal
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Fri, 28 May 1999 06:58:46 +0500 (GMT+0500) India should do the following IMMEDIATELY: 1. Retaliate and shoot down two or more PAF planes. 2. Make incursions into Pakistani territory where the terrain is advantageous to Indian forces. Ravi
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Fri, 28 May 1999 11:43:47 +0530 The report is well written and describes the steel behind the unassuming characters of the two service chiefs. The comment -- "General Malik may err on the side of caution " was uncalled for. So was the fact regarding intelligence failure. We must have faith in the ability of our armed forces and the leadership of our generals. Remember, these people are tough professionals and battle scarred veterans. Post mortem, if necessary regarding intelligence failure can be done at a later stage, when the insurgents and infiltrators are wiped out. What about the political tamasha being enacted in Delhi for the last two months? The unnecessary political instability created by political jokers and orchestrated by an Italian housewife with no experience or first hand knowledge of India's political, economic or strategic imperatives and ably aided by a fat woman from Chennai, interested in scuttling corruption charges have emboldened our hostile neighbour to provoke this situation. The ill gotten wealth of this character should be confiscated and distributed among the dependents of the soldiers who are laying down their lives in fighting a low intensity war. Sanjiv Barve
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Fri, 28 May 1999 13:50:40 +0100 What kind of a nincompoop is Natwar Singh? How can he claim that if air strikes lead to war, the fault will be with our government? It is people like him who politicise the defence of our borders. If anything, the government has erred on the side of caution. We should have bombed the militants in 1989-90, and at this juncture should continue bombing till the Pakis realise that they have no business in India. Ruchira Raghav
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Thu, 27 May 1999 21:39:02 EDT What can a caretaker government do? First of all, use a sickle and cut the government's feet, then pound them with a hammer and make Vajpayee and his Cabinet ministers feel guilty? Then use all kinds of media and condemn the BJP and its allies as failures. Damned are they if they do, and damned if they do not! Ramesh Kapoor
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Fri, 28 May 1999 11:40:43 -0400 I am an Indian working in USA. The two most high profile military operations going on in the world today involve USA and India. Given my vantage point, I can help but draw parallels between the two. There are many differences of course, but one thing in which I had expected similarity is the support provided to the servicemen and women in the respective countries and the painstaking care required to preserve their lives. It is rather disturbing, thus, to see that US, while carrying out hundreds of sorties, clearly in enemy terrain, have taken excruciating care of their service personnel and attached great importance to safe-guarding their lives, to a point that when three of them were captured the whole country united behind them and they moved mountains to have them released, but in the Indian operations in Kargil the story seems to quite different. The martyrs for the cause of India firstly have been too many, especially when you consider that the operations are on the Indian side of the Line of Control. Secondly, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, I haven't seen a single word of praise written in all the articles about these men who have died in the line of their duty. Thirdly, nobody seems to be questioning why we are having such high casualties (including two planes and one helicopter) and still tolerating such gross attacks from Pakistan. If the military is really serious about "teaching the enemy a lesson" as one of the generals remarked, I am not sure what lesson we have taught if we lose so many Indian servicemen with Pakistan losing may be an equal number of "Afghans?!" And that too after they have entered India already? In conclusion, I am perplexed by the facts as it appears to be India which is losing a lot more than Pakistan and unless we match their no holds bar approach and devious strategies regarding this proxy war, India, in an attempt to "contain" might end up losing much more -- most importantly the lives of its dedicated service personnels -- than gaining. Sorabh Saxena
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Fri, 28 May 1999 11:42:57 -0400 I am happy to see that our government is at least battling it out with the insurgents. It is painful to see all the political leaders trying to get mileage out of this. I don't think this problem started last year or year before. It has existed since 1947. So my question is: what did other governments do until now. I don't care which party wins or loses in the coming elections all I care is my country winning this battle with terrorists who threaten the way we live. Anoop
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