Cinema, T.V. and films about war cannot ever convey the smells of bodies of animals as well as humans, friends, the sense of fear, sometimes even terror, the fatigue, weight of equipment, pain of blisters on feet, feeling unwashed and being lousy at times, the feel of thick khaki flannel shirts against a sensitive skin on a hot stick track on a mountainous terrain.
We had to fight against our own people, some disillusioned fighters who worked in hands of foreign agencies and chanted the slogans of an extremist form of Shariat. They had held Swat hostage for some time now and we had finally been ordered by our government to come here and free the people from these terrorists. We came with a strategy. Civilian casualties and collateral damage had to be minimized. We were fighting for our country, fighting for its honor and pride and for the safety of its people.
We took a lot of casualties to ensure that no civilians come in the line of fire. The Bren Gunner next to me lost his nerve completely and refused to fire until he was absolutely sure he was not doing any collateral damage. I had to take his Bren gun (light machine gun) from him. I fired this from the hip towards a farmyard where there were some terrorists crouched behind a stone wall. When the magazine was empty I handed the Bren gun back to him and just used my rifle firing in the direction of the terrorists. It was dark. You couldn’t see who you were firing at, we had to take chances.
We had an anti tank gun and thought we would use it to blast the wall of the farmyard. We called for a lad. His name, I remember was Moiz. He carried the Piat. There was no reply. I was told that Moiz had got a bullet right in his forehead. Eventually we got to the farmyard, pitch dark now that the firing and bombs from inside had stopped stonking us.
Someone said: 'Allah U Akbar' and we instantly knew that we had captured the area we were fighting to liberate and the terrorists had run away. The task for my platoon had been accomplished. Soon, we had liberated the whole city.
It was tough; lives had been lost, limbs had been lost and the psychological damage from fighting against fellow Pakistanis was beyond repair, but our country's pride had been restored. Pakistani flag was waving in Swat once again.
*This story was told by a soldier who was part of the Swat operation. The purpose of this blog is to praise our armed forces and recognize their efforts in the war against terrorism.
