Wing Commander Abhinandan returns ... Happy day ..

It lasted only 14 days ~ in the battle of Padma, nearer Jessore, Squadron leader Kumar gets ejected from his fighter aircraft and lands in an area, with full presence of Paki military.  Pak committing atrocities on locals takes custody of Indian Squadron leader.  He is tortured by Capt,. Mohammad Sultan of Pak army, in whose veins hatred against India runs.  When Pak surrenders – Sultan takes Kumar out, and shoots him in his stomach, minutes later, he is arrested by advancing Indian troops who provide medical aid to Sultan .. .. that is ’14 naatkal’ [14 days] novel of Sujatha.

The best picture ever - Indian General Jagjit Singh Aurora helping a pen  to Pakistani General Amir Abdullah Khan Niazi, Governor of East Pakistan, to sign the document surrendering his army ~ and that of Capt Abhinandan Varthaman returning back to  India  .. ..  .. ..

It is good to be back in my country," was the first reaction of IAF pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman as he set foot on Indian soil. This was stated by an official quoting Varthaman after he received the pilot at the Attari-Wagah border soon after his release by Pakistan.  Varthaman will undergo debriefing on Saturday, which will include his physiological as well as a physical check-up in the presence of officials from the military and Intelligence agencies.  In someways, these are not the details, commoners like me need to be debating ..

1^st  Mar 2019, Friday was a Happy India for the Nation, as we celebrated the return of Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who had been captured by Pakistan after the MiG-21 Bison jet that he was flying crashed.  The IAF pilot returned to India from Attari-Wagah border at around 9:20 pm, where thousands had been waiting for hours for a glimpse of him.   Prime Minister Narendra Modiji  and other leaders welcomed  the brave pilot, who has become a hero for the entire nation after he showed immense grit and grace while in the enemy's captivity. Wing Commander Varthaman's release had been delayed due to certain reasons.   According to a report in news agency PTI, the IAF pilot’s return was delayed as he was asked to record a statement on camera by Pakistani authorities before he was allowed to cross the border. The recording released on the official Twitter handle of Government of Pakistan was later deleted. It was not clear whether he was made to record the video under duress. The video also had several jump cuts indicating that it had been edited heavily. “Recording of his video message caused a delay in his handing over,” a source said.

The Padma, is a major river in Bangladesh and India (downstream of Giria). It is the main distributary of the Ganges, flowing generally southeast for 120 kilometres (75 mi) to its confluence with the Meghna River near the Bay of Bengal.  The district produces a variety of crops year-round.  Jessore  district was established in 1781. It had to happen – the political and military absurdity that was East Pakistan was never a viable proposition. No country made of two halves so geographically separated and culturally alienated like Pakistan was, could possibly survive as one entity, no matter what the religious sentiments dictated. Britain’s last Viceroy of India had predicted it to last, at best, a quarter of a century; the events overtook the prediction by a year. But what turned out to be pathetic was that Pakistan, headed by Yahya Khan’s military junta, messed up things so very badly, that in the end the matter was settled under such humiliating circumstances for that country. They just refused to see the writing on the wall; and instead of granting freedom to Bangladesh, fought bloody war, killed tens of thousands, raped their own people and alienated themselves totally.  

The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the liberation war in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 to the fall of Dacca (Dhaka) on 16 December 1971.  During the war, Indian and Pakistani militaries simultaneously clashed on the eastern and western fronts; the war ended after the Eastern Command of the Pakistan military signed the Instrument of Surrender  on 16 December 1971 in Dhaka, marking the formation of East Pakistan as the new nation of Bangladesh. During the 1971 Bangladesh war for independence, members of the Pakistani military and supporting Islamist militias called the Razakars raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bangladeshi women and girls in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape, says Wikipedia.

praying for the safety of Abhinandan at Sri Kalikambal temple

Abhinandan’s return is hailed in every media and there are so many reports of the bravery of the great son of India.  News 18 provides an interesting report on his mother (his father too was a decoarated army officer).  Retired Group Captain Tarun K Singha, who has known the family for decades, said that the image of a calm, composed Abhinandan that many saw after his capture by the Pakistani Army just shows the genes that Abhinandan inherited from his mother, Dr Shobha Varthaman, who has worked in many conflict zones all through her career as a doctor with Medicine Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders).  “She epitomises the quintessential woman of substance. She has served humanity amidst cataclysmic violence, healed the wounded in some of the worst conflict zones around the world, ensured mothers and their newborn survive post-delivery complications in Haiti,” Gp Capt Singha told News18 about Dr Shobha.

A woman toughened by serving in war-ravaged countries, Dr Shobha has also been an activist for healthcare and education. More recently, she launched an online campaign to increase punishment for child sexual abuse convicts two years ago.  This great woman doctor has served  at the dangerous places her work at Doctors Without Borders took her to. “In the northern terriroty of Ivory Coast in 2005, only AK-47s and machetes ruled. She went into rebel country, 300 km from the peace-keeping corridor of the UN,” Singha recounted in the article, the extract of which he shared with News18. Liberia and Nigeria, post-civil wars in both places, were other places she was deployed in, “amidst perennial conflicts between the villages and the oil companies, government and the villages, oil thefts, intra and inter-tribal fights.”

With great regards – S. Sampathkumar

2^nd Mar 2019. 

PS 1:  the valour of Capt Abhinandan and similar real stories should be part of our history and our younger generation should read them in schools and in history books

2.  it would be in everyone interests that this is not filmed with some cine actor portrayed as a hero [tinsel dupers are not heroes, simply entertainers]

3.  the social media fighters – who ask for evidence,  who without patriotism or knowledge - write volumes on military strategies, efficacy of planes, need for peace, praising Imrankhan and any other enemy rulers, writing anything against India, the Nation, its armed forces – should be banned; if no such action takes place, let us resolve, simple to ignore them, unfriend them and have nothing to do with them

Jai Hind.